A CARIBBEAN?SPORTSMAN and former NFL player thinks Caribbean islands must set up programmes to help the region’s talented athletes pursue lucrative careers in major North American sports.
Trinidadian-born Kerry Carter, a former NFL running back now active in the Canadian League with the Montreal Alouettes, believed the time had come for the region to look more seriously at exporting players in baseball and American football.
“Caribbean athletes have the speed and athleticism and most of them are fast learners,” said Carter, who recently toured Barbados with players from the Canadian Professional League.
The 31-year-old Trinidadian, who migrated to Canada with his mother at age nine, attended Stanford University and is a former player with NFL franchises Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Redskins.
Carter, who played cricket and soccer while living in Port of Spain, said he was living proof that Caribbean athletes could make the transition, once given the opportunity.
“When I started I didn’t know a lot about the game but I learnt and had to get used to the contact. There is a bright future outside of the traditional sports.”
He believed the traditional paradigm, where a few talented Caribbean athletes were discovered at college, had not worked for the region. Structures must be put in place so players could develop and be exported, he said.
As part of his effort to give back, Carter intends to focus on the Caribbean by introducing his Think Big Foundation to the region, first to Barbados and Trinidad, so he can identify talent and help prepare them for the challenges of life and professional sport.
He was among a contingent of 70 pro players, fans and executives of the game in Canada who spent seven days in Barbados last week as part of a sports tourism Fantasy Camp programme organized by the Canadian Football League Players Association and the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA).
Partners in the programme are seeking to make it an annual event, with Barbados hosting the association’s official pre-season week, including the Fantasy Camp, a skills development camp, a cheerleader calendar photo shoot and hundreds of Canadian Football League fans.
The BTA, working in conjunction with Canadian organizer Greg Albrecht, had spent 18 months planning Fantasy Camp, the new initiative in the Canadian market, said BTA sports tourism manager Gregory Armstrong.
(JM/PR)
