Bri­an Lewis

In re­cent weeks a num­ber of young adults and teenagers in­volved in T&T sport and a few not ac­tive­ly in­volved have spo­ken with me, some not for the first time, about their con­cerns and frus­tra­tions.

Even though this col­umn has ad­dressed the top­ic of youth and young peo­ple in T&T sport on many oc­ca­sions, I am seen by the young peo­ple who spoke with me re­cent­ly as hav­ing a du­ty, oblig­a­tion and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to keep talk­ing about the is­sue. The young­sters seem to be­lieve the sit­u­a­tion isn't get­ting any bet­ter and have ar­gued it's get­ting worse. Un­til such time as there is im­prove­ment. The dis­cus­sions can't be swept un­der the car­pet. It has to be faced hon­est­ly and fear­less­ly.

The so­cial prob­lems fac­ing T&T are plac­ing the sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment of sport in jeop­ardy. There are prob­lems in every com­mu­ni­ty. De­cid­ing which are the most crit­i­cal and press­ing and war­rant­i­ng im­me­di­ate at­ten­tion is prov­ing a prob­lem.

Ad­dress­ing the rel­e­vant is­sues that af­fect young in­di­vid­u­als in clubs and com­mu­ni­ty based sport or­gan­i­sa­tions must as a mat­ter of ur­gency be a pri­or­i­ty of every na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tion.

There are prob­lems as var­ied as crime, un­em­ploy­ment, in­suf­fi­cient and in ad­e­quate in­fra­struc­ture. Some sports have spe­cif­ic prob­lems that are unique.

Is­sues sur­round­ing the youth of the na­tion in gen­er­al are sig­nif­i­cant.

In some com­mu­ni­ties, young peo­ple don't see sport as im­por­tant due to so­cial re­al­i­ties such as crime, un­em­ploy­ment and teenaged preg­nan­cy.

Pos­i­tive life choic­es are con­sid­ered few and far apart. Hope­less­ness and frus­tra­tion are now en­dem­ic and over­whelm­ing.

Good, de­cent and tal­ent­ed peo­ple young, old, male and fe­male in­volved in sport have said they need the right lead­er­ship and guid­ance. They want a bet­ter fu­ture for their sport and young sports­men and women.

They aren't sug­gest­ing that the prob­lems can all be solved at the same time or overnight. What they are ask­ing for is a sin­cere ef­fort from those whom they have elect­ed to lead their re­spec­tive sport or­gan­i­sa­tions.

Young peo­ple don't want to be a fail­ure. No one wants to see lo­cal sport strug­gle or fail to ful­fill the full po­ten­tial that is at the very heart of sport in T&T.

Young peo­ple feel and be­lieve that the biggest hur­dle is de­nial. They want their el­ders and lead­ers to lis­ten to their con­cerns and not de­ny that there are is­sues. Youth par­tic­i­pa­tion num­bers ap­pear to be in a pre­cip­i­tous fall. Mem­ber­ship in sport clubs have dropped. The re­ten­tion rate in cer­tain sports is abysmal.

This is not about the per­son­al­i­ty and ego based 'ole' talk and blame game or pan­der­ing to those with grudges or un­in­formed views or who have an axe to grind.

The pri­or­i­ty is the youth and young peo­ple who rep­re­sent the vast ma­jor­i­ty of par­tic­i­pants. With­out chil­dren, youth and young peo­ple and their re­ten­tion in sports. The nurs­ery and the life blood of sport will shriv­el.

It is in this con­text and this con­text alone. I urge na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions, sports lead­ers and sports ad­min­is­tra­tors to hear the cry of young peo­ple.

If we are se­ri­ous then start dis­cussing the care and con­cern of the chil­dren, youth and young peo­ple who play sports or those who we would like to play sports. If we don't reach out to the youth on is­sues that mat­ter to them. We risk the col­lapse of sport as we know it.

Young ath­letes, who par­tic­i­pate in sport, place their trust in sport lead­ers to look af­ter their best in­ter­ests.

We were all young once and should ap­pre­ci­ate where the youth are com­ing from. They are the fu­ture of T&T sport.

Bri­an Lewis is the Pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee. The views ex­pressed are not nec­es­sar­i­ly those of the TTOC. For more in­for­ma­tion about the Olympic move­ment and the TTOC vis­it www.ttoc.org.

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