By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE many persons are looking at ways of how they will operate once sports resume in the country, sports administrator and physical education teacher Rev Stephen Brown is trying to find ways to get the facilities improved on the island of San Salvador.

Brown, who left New Providence in 1999 when he switched from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture to become a physical education teacher in the Ministry of Education, said the conditions of the facilities on the island are in a deplorable state.

“We have a new primary school, but I have no facilities to operate from,” said Brown, who is also the pastor of Zion Baptist Church and District Superintendent of the Zion United Baptist Convention of the San Salvador and Rum Cay district.

“It seems to me that I had more facilities and more opportunities to develop these kids 20 years ago compared to now. When you look at the high school, it’s even worse. Some of the authorities were in San Salvador, they looked at the facilities, but they have done nothing since to improve the facilities here.”

Since he migrated to the island, which history shows was discovered by Christopher Columbus, Rev Brown has helped to turn San Salvador into one of the prized basketball programmes in the southern end of our archipelago.

Yet, Rev Brown said they have deteriorated so badly and now they are faced with the coronavirus, which has left them as one of the few islands whose economy has been fully opened since the government locked down the country in March.

With a commute that takes him about 10 minutes, Rev Brown shuffles his time daily between the United States Primary School and the San Salvador High School where he caters to about 100 students in each school. He has been able to create a winning tradition for the respective Woodpeckers and the Caciques basketball teams.

Additionally, Rev Brown plays a pivotal role as the pastor of Zion Baptist Church, district superintendent of the Zion United Baptist Convention of the San Salvador and Rum Cay Churches, a justice of the peace, president of the San Salvador Basketball Association, director of the Southern Region of the Bahamas Basketball Federation and liaison officer for sports in San Salvador for the Ministry of Sports.

The island, which has a population of about 2,000, is yearning for the day when they can see an improvement in their sporting facilities. “We used to have a very flourishing basketball programme here, but that has deteriorated because we don’t have a central basketball court that we can utilise,” he said.

“As soon as this pandemic is over, I will have a meeting with our new island administrator, Mr Earl Campbell. We sat down before, but then the pandemic came upon us and we have rescheduled a meeting when the island open up.”

Brown said they are looking at implementing a number of sporting programmes to engage the community, one of which is baseball, but he admitted that they are in dire need to the proper facilities around the two schools where they can enhance their activities.

Initially when he came to San Salvador, Brown said he used to host a number of tournaments, but they also encountered a housing problem so they decided to go on the road and participate in tournaments held in Long Island, Bimini, Grand Bahama and New Providence.

With the island still locked down, Brown said they will have to get used to the social distancing and the wearing of masts if they are going to enjoy the new norm when sports resume in the country.

“It’s how you adjust to it,” he said. “From the school prospective, I will have to look at how I operate with my classes. I have some space and I will know how to do the social distancing.

“It’s going to be a training process because you are looking at young people who are energized and who are just happy to be on the outside. So it’s going to be a new norm that we will have to adjust too.”

Having made the adjustment from the hectic flow of things in the city life in New Providence, to the more quiet and serene atmosphere on the island, Brown said he’s up to the challenge.

“We were one of the fastest growing islands with about 11 flights coming in every week in San Salvador,” Brown said. “We don’t have any now, so that is playing a toll on our way of life here.

“The good news is that nobody here has been diagnosed with the virus, which is one of the good things that the people appreciate. So we don’t have much to worry about here because there are no flights coming in.”

Brown, however, said they are still grateful that Lady Francis and PCT mail boats making their weekly voyages to the island, so they have access to the necessary essentials and the Churches are opened.

His only wish is that there can be an improvement in the facilities that they have to work with.