President of the Jamaica Lacrosse Association (JLA) Calbert Hutchinson says the country’s hosting of this year’s Pan American Lacrosse Association (PALA) Sixes Cup is a massive springboard for the growth and development of the sport locally.

Jamaica will be the first Caribbean country to host the event that will feature teams from Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica, Haiti, Barbados, and Dominican Republic, while Canada and the United States are yet to confirm their participation.

The tournament, which will be held November 9-11, will feature the country’s senior men’s and women’s teams as well as their Under-20 male and female sides.

“This tournament is going to be a springboard for us to garner all the support that we needed to establish ourselves as not just an organisation that is always stretching our hands for donation and sponsorship, but we are providing opportunities for our stakeholders to earn,” said Hutchinson following Tuesday’s media briefing at the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) offices.

“This event is going to be a very strategic event to position ourselves among the great sports in Jamaica,” he said.

Hutchinson also gave kudos to the JOA for helping them to assist in their bid of hosting the tournament.

“We were able to partner with the Jamaica Olympic Association and we got a lot of guidance from them in developing our bid proposal. We went up against other countries because of our partnership with the JOA, we stood out compared to the other countries,” Hutchinson said.

“We are expecting to dominate this event in our senior men and women sections and even our Under-20 teams because we will be using our local-based players and diaspora players will be joining us as well,” he added.

Christopher Samuda, president of JOA, said his organisation is very committed in assisting with the development of the so-called smaller sports in Jamaica.

“We have established a business strategy that will not only see the successful delivery of the tournament not only from a culture point of view, but also from a financial point of view,” said Samuda.

“This is going to be a huge event for Jamaica with over 600 players and with the fans base, we are expecting over 2,000 persons at the event.

“We are engaging the Ministry of Tourism and we are engaging other stakeholders to ensure that this becomes a multi-faceted event, a profitable event and certainly from a Jamaica Olympic Association perspective, we have always said to our associations that the delivery events always be profitable,” he went on.

Shannen Graham, a senior member of the country’s female team, shared that they are looking forward to a very exciting championships.

“I am feeling very excited about us hosting this tournament because as an organisation we have come a very far way from only having two high schools teams for our competitions to us now having over 15 teams,” said Graham.

“I feel like this will bring a lot more exposure to not only Jamaica, but the Caribbean as well and for those Caribbean Islands that are just starting out in the sport,” she said. “I feel that hosting this tournament will help us to secure more sponsorship because funds are also very important in growing the sport,” she added.