EDUCATION, SPORTS, GENDER & YOUTH AFFAIRS

CPTSA & ABFA To Collaborate on Female Football

As the saying goes, “All’s well that ends well.” What started off as a mis-understanding and bad communication between the Concerned Parents/Teachers Sports Association, organizers of the CPTSA Female Football Tournament, and the Antigua/Barbuda Foot-ball Association, ending with the two bodies clearing the grey clouds sur-rounding the hosting of the Tournament.
After several exchanges of letters be-tween the CPTSA and the ABFA, President of the CPTSA Wings Sports Club visited the Secretary General of the AFA, Mr. Gordon (Banks) Der-rick, on Tuesday, July 13th.
The CPTSA had postponed the 9th An-nual Female Football Tournament, because it felt that the ABFA had sud-denly ad hoc a female league without any official communication to the CPTSA, except for word of mouth by an ABFA coordinator of Female Foot-ball to the coach of the Wings Youth & Female football, Mr. Thaddeus Price. However, at the meeting it was conceded that even though lack of sponsorship was an issue, the major reason for the postponement was the seemingly conflict with both competitions happening at the same time with no scheduled conclusion date.
The concurrence running of both competitions would not have been an issue, except that it would have been the same female players/teams. Female football in Antigua/Barbuda is still in its development stages. The CPTSA Tournament and ABFA League are of just one Division, in that younger players and seasoned players are pooled together. Even in the Schools football league, there is just one Division for Girls.
Nevertheless, the meeting between both officials of the ABFA and CPTSA ended amicably. The ABFA resolved to communi-cate and work closer together with the CPTSA for the im-provement of female football in Antigua/Barbuda.
Mr. Derrick, acknowledged the contribution and praised the efforts of the CPTSA to female football over the years.
As such, the ABFA will be playing a greater role in the promo-tion and enhancement of the CPTSA Female Football Tourna-ment and with more assistance forth-coming.
The CPTSA Female Football Tournament is now slated to kick off October 2 –10, 2010 and has once again, been officially sanctioned by the ABFA.
The CPTSA Wings Sports Club is an affiliate member of the ABFA.

Wings off to YBOA Int'l Basketball Camp

A small group of Wings basketballers left Antigua on Friday, July 16, 2010, to participate in the Annual Youth Basketball Of America (YBOA) International Camp in Orlando, Florida. This year, the Camp has been moved back to Hunter’s Creek basketball gymnasium.
The Wings youth basketballers have been participating at YBOA events since 2003. The first two (2) years, Wings participated in the
U-14 Tournament, but never could field a strong enough team to be competitive, due to lack of finance of families of some of the better players, or the obtaining the visas to travel.
As such, the Wings decided to participate in the Camp. That way, any number can have the opportunity to play. For many of the players, it’s usually the first or only time that they experience playing in an indoor gymnasium with wooden flooring. Also, the players have been able to make friends from a number of countries. Some countries participating include India, Mexico, Costa Rica, Bahamas and St. Vincent.
The CPTSA would like to thank the Government through the Ministry of Sports, Intertops and Town House Mega Store for making it possi-ble for the group to participate in the Camp.
YBOA has been one of the sponsors of the Gillian Brazier Basketball over the years.