Freshly minted Minister for Education, Youth Development, Sports, and Digital Transformation Kenson Casimir and his colleague Minister, Danny Butcher must hit the ground running in 2026. Their work is well cut out for them: improving on existing tournaments, finding solutions for long-running issues, and establishing or re-establishing community and national facilities.
High on the agenda must be the refurbishment of the George Odlum Stadium. In 2024, the Philip J. Pierre administration secured funds for the restoration of the nation’s sole international-quality athletics facility. US$8 million was sought from the Saudi Fund for Development, and bids were invited for the works on the dishevelled superstructure and the aged competition surface.
But, of course, reviving the stadium was contingent on the full completion of St Jude Hospital. That process is expected to be completed during the first half of 2026. The stadium project, inasmuch as it will be of interest to the Ministry of Sports, will not be under their direct control. It is expected, however, that they will be consulted, along with the national governing bodies for athletics and football, insofar as decisions regarding relaying the worn rubber tracks and the football pitch.
What is of even greater import from the perspective of the ministry, though, is a plan for use of the venue. They need to consult local and regional leads for track and field, masters/senior athletics and football in search of opportunities for Saint Lucia to host events that will allow for our athletes to strut their stuff on home soil. To no insignificant degree, the Ministry of Tourism and the Hotel and Tourism Association must be part of any such talks.
The stadium was originally intended to be the centrepiece of a sports complex. It might be burdensome to build out a hostel and space for indoor sports within the next five years. But a 25-metre four-lane pool should be explored at a minimum. With the completion of the National Aquatic Centre in the north of the island expected by the end of 2026, swimming has to realise its long-held dream of having publicly available practice pools in other parts of the island as well.
The 2027 CARIFTA Aquatics Championships are slated to be held in Saint Lucia, but again, the minister will want to work with the Aquatics Federation to attract more events in coming years.
For decades, the Vigie Multipurpose Sports Complex has hosted local, regional, and international basketball, netball, and volleyball. Plans to cover at least one court have been announced time and again. One prime minister said he could cover the court within 12 months. All three of these sports are on a downward trend in terms of participation and regional success. Interventions must be made to get the numbers back up and to make national teams more competitive.
Covered courts in at least three communities outside Castries must be a priority. I would select Micoud, Vieux Fort and Soufrière. But again, facilities should not be built without the attendant mechanisms to grow the relevant disciplines. The national federations will need to be involved in a comprehensive grassroots training programme, such as those which have made football and cricket so highly subscribed at the community level.
Coaches should be assigned to the schools and coaching supervisors to school districts in concert with governing bodies. There are only 25 schools eligible to participate in school sports, which will now be entirely under the purview of a single ministry. No tournament should be held with fewer than half of the schools represented. It has to be a goal of the ministry to have 50 per cent representation or better in the 2026–2027 school sports programme.
That said, the new administration will be tasked with figuring out what to do with the Saint Lucia Sports Academy. The present paradigm, in place since 2019, is that the former Gros Islet Secondary School is a “regular” secondary school, except for the fact that it has specialised coaching in athletics, cricket and football.
Strengthening the school sports programme across the board can allow for the transition of SLSA to cater to post-secondary student-athletes. Its initial promise of being an elite development initiative would be realised by transforming it into a finishing school, or a high-performance centre, similar to prep schools in the US.
And like prep schools, the SLSA should be focused on preparing student-athletes for the professional ranks, or universities and colleges in North America, the United Kingdom, and even Australia and India for netball and cricket. SLSA teams should be competing at a far higher level than an inter-school tournament.
A workable scholarship programme would require an officer or officers to establish relationships with overseas schools. It would call for mandatory videotaping of practices and competitions for distribution to coaches, athletic directors and scouts. Saint Lucia can and should access free higher education for dozens of athletes per annum.
Our nation has untapped potential in sports, and properly exploiting it is not a short-term process. But within the next two to three years, the application of infrastructural and human resource development can help us take a major leap forward.
