Open Campus Academy of Sport and Cricket West Indies
Host Outreach in Antigua
Video:- OCAS/CWI Antigua Outreach
Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal. Tuesday, June 11, 2019 - Sixteen young female cricketers from primary and secondary schools in Antigua and Barbuda now have a better appreciation for the game of cricket and professional sport in general. This, after, The UWI Open Campus Academy of Sport (OCAS) and Cricket West Indies (CWI) hosted a one-day outreach activity for young female cricketers at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua and Barbuda during the CWI’s women’s training camp.
The 16 female students represented four schools: St. Andrews Primary School, Antigua Girls’ High School, Potters Primary School and New Winthorpes Primary School. During the camp, they were taught the basics of cricket, batting, bowling and fielding as well as cricketing drills.
The 16 girls worked alongside 16 female cricketers and Kiddies Cricket coaches as they participated in the event and then played a mini match with the cricketers.
During the practical component, Ms. Ayana Cooper, CWI Player Development Officer; Ms. Dayna Smith, Open Campus Academy of Sport Activity Development Officer; and Ms. Naasira Mohammed, CWI Media Officer - Men’s and Women’s Teams, participated in a brief interview sanctioned by CWI.
The programme also had a social responsibility component. Ms. Cooper led a discussion forum featuring the female cricketers sharing their life experiences on becoming professional athletes and the associated benefits and challenges. The students also benefited from the presence of other CWI off-the-field professional staff such as the physiotherapist, sports psychologist, media officer, and player development officer, as well as the OCAS Officer, who are all females.
The key message from the cricketers was that there are significant opportunities for women in the usually male-dominated sport industry to pursue a profession in sport, both on and off the field.
The presentations were followed by a robust question and answer segment with the schoolers asking insightful questions of the cricketers and support staff.
The Open Campus Academy of Sport Activity Development Officer, Ms. Smith stressed to both the cricketers and young ladies the benefits of pursuing tertiary education, and used the forum to highlight the three bachelors of science sport programmes being offered by the Open Campus this September: BSc Sport Kinetics, BSc Sport Coaching and BSc in Sport Leadership and Management.
Head of the Open Campus Antigua Site, Mrs Zane Peters also echoed those sentiments, noting that there is life after sport and the bachelors of science in sport programmes offered by the Open Campus make it possible to pursue the passion for sport in another way.
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Cricket pic_01: Young female cricketers listening attentively to the professional female players
Cricket pic_02: Young female cricketers going through the paces with their senior counterparts
About The UWI
For the past 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and four campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, and an Open Campus. As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Asia, and Africa such as the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development, the UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport.
As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. Times Higher Education has ranked The UWI among the top 1,258 universities in world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018, and was the only Caribbean-based University to make the prestigious lists. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.
(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)
