JOA looks to increase sport administration knowledge base
Published:Friday | December 31, 2021 | 12:10 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) President Christopher Samuda says the partnership with the United States Sports Academy (USSA) will help to increase the international standard of local coaches and sport executives, enhancing sports development in Jamaica
Seventeen presidents and secretaries general from 17 sports associations, as well as known sport personalities, are expected to be trained and receive international certification upon completion of sport-specific courses offered by the academy next year, as part of the Protocol for Partnership Agreement which was signed earlier this year by the JOA and its member, the Jamaica Paralympic Association (JPA), with the USSA.
Signalling the venture as a first bilateral partnership of its kind for a Caribbean and Central and South American national Olympic committee and Paralympic committee, Samuda, who is also the JPA president, said that the continued investment in education will help to build the pillars for a competent sports industry in Jamaica.
“This will be the first delivery by the JOA in an innings that will have pace and spin bowling designed to revolutionise the game in education,” Samuda said.
LONG-TERM BENEFIT
JOA Secretary General/CEO and JPA Director Ryan Foster said that the partnership will help to ensure the long-term future of sporting associations in Jamaica.
“The JOA is fuelling and igniting the knowledge of a wide cross section of policymakers and practitioners in sport, while providing electricity to sport development in a very real and practical way that will generate the energy that is well needed for sustainability,” Foster said.
The latest initiative is a part of JOA’s education policy which seeks to involve athletes, coaches and administrators. JOA’s scholarship programme ‘Olympic Scholars’, which was launched last year, is a part of that policy, as well as its ‘Stamina’ education series that rolled out in 2018 to “create a knowledge and competency-based sports industry”. Samuda says the programmes will develop the proficiency required for sporting agencies to meet the required international standard.
“We inspire our members and stakeholders to get with the programme, learn the curricula well, write your theses, evaluate your aspirations, and graduate with degrees of ambition,” Samuda said.
JOA Director Yvonne Kong says the USSA partnership will help to cultivate sporting professionals who will be able to operate in leadership roles. “Education is the JOA’s primary mantra and through this partnership with the USSA, we are creating several opportunities for our sportsmen and women to become knowledge-based transformation leaders,” Kong said.