Roy Colebrook earns his master’s degree in Sports Management

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Bahamas Olympic Committee vice president Roy Colebrook (second left) receives his master’s degree in sports management.

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

ROY Colebrook, one of the Bahamas Olympic Committee vice presidents, finds himself in a unique position. He’s just one of three Bahamians to have earned his master’s degree in sports management.

He follows in the footsteps of BOC president Rommel ‘Fish’ Knowles, who earned his degree a year ago.

They both, however, trail former long-time BOC secretary general Dr Larry Davis, who was the trailblazer.

Colebrook’s graduation took place a few weeks ago at the IOC’s Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“Over the past year, I was hunkered down doing the programme, which was very important to me personally,” Colebrook said.

“I wanted to complete all I wanted to do in sports and that is to achieve my master’s and then to prove that we have persons in the Bahamas who are capable of achieving this milestone.”

In joining Knowles and Davis, Colebrook said he feels the Bahamas is in a much better position to produce a lot more programmes that will be beneficial to the country as a whole and more programmes will be provided through the BOC to accomplish those goals.

He is hoping that both the BOC and the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture will rely on his expertise to assist the country in pushing forth some of the programmes that will be beneficial to the Bahamian public.

The diploma course was made available through the BOC and the International Olympic Committee.

Colebrook was one of 30 persons from around the world that participated in the course this year.

“It wasn’t easy but at the end of the day, I persevered and, as a result, I have another master’s diploma for the Bahamas,” he said.

“This was a programme that was encouraged by the IOC and the scholarship was funded by the IOC.

“It just shows you the magnitude of what the meaning of this master’s degree is.”

During the course of the year, Colebrook had to visit Switzerland, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Slovenia and back to Switzerland where Olympic museums are located. Each stop required Colebrook to be stationed for about a month.

“When you come back from each stop, you did some work at home because the IOC knows that there are people and programmes that you need to assist with,” Colebrook said.

“Every three months, you had to go to one of the other countries to see how the movement was operating.

“It was really an intense course, especially when you had to travel. But it was worth it. I now have my diploma in sports management.”

As one of the senior members of the BOC, Colebrook has travelled extensively to serve as the chef de mission for the Bahamas national teams that competed at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.