By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

SOME of the pioneers of softball and baseball in Grand Bahama will be honoured during the Rising Stars Softball’s Pioneers Awards Banquet on Friday, January 26 at Blair House on Magellan Drive, Lucaya.

The event, which will take place starting at 7pm, will seek to keep the memories and the contributions alive from a number of personalities, both still alive and those who would have passed on.

During the night, the Rising Star, in conjunction with the Grand Bahama Baseball Association, will say “thank you” in person to George Weech, Willie Mays Francis, Sanford ‘Sanny’ Culmer, Randy Rolle, Simon Lewis, Melvin Ambrose Gouthro, Dexter Rolle, Barbara Grant, Karen ‘Kay’ Moxey, Leonard ‘Lennu’ Newton and FOCOL.

Being honoured posthumously are Waitwell ‘Riggs’ Rigby, David McIntosh, Preston Stuart, Patrice Campbell, Zenobia ‘Nobie’ Cooper, Anna Hall and Cornelius ‘Money’ Williams.

Tickets for the night are priced at $75 per person and interested persons can call any one of these numbers 646-5134, 533-7989 or 727-9862 or email:risingstars_2013@ hotmail.com to make a purchase.

The Rising Star is an organisation, headed by former national team softball player Yvonne Lockhart, who later moved into coaching, to provide opportunities to develop and showcase the talent of the many young talent coming up in softball on the island of Grand Bahama.

The organisation, according to Lockhart, also provides a forum for these players to be seen by international scouts and college coaches for scholarship opportunities in the United States and Canada.

As a result of previous discussions with the late Greg Christie, who was a consultant at that time for Rising Star Softball and Bernard Aranah, a former president of the Grand Bahama Baseball Association, about preserving the history of both sports and recording the history of both sport and to recognise persons who pioneered the sports, Lockhart revealed that the Pioneers Awards Banquet got started in 2015 under the theme, “Preserving History, Honoring Excellence and Connecting Generations.”

“This year we partnered with Baseball and selected persons from various categories namely, player, administrator, officials, sponsor and media to recognise those persons who made valuable contribution to the sport locally and in some cases internationally,” Lockhart said.

“Most of these individuals gave unselfishly of their time, and in most cases finance, all for the love of the sport and its development on Grand Bahama, they were the ones that made it happen in the 70’s. We would love to host this event every two years.”

Since 2015 when they hosted the first Pioneers Awards Banquet, Lockhart said they were faced with some setbacks including Covid.

But moving forward, they intend to host the event every two years as the non-profit organisation, whose focus is on developing character, ensuring academic excellence is maintained to play the sport, and subsequently producing sports opportunities, continue to grow since they began their journey in 2013.

“Apart from physical development, our objective is to implant firmly in the athletes the ideals of good sportsmanship, honesty, loyalty, courage, and respect for authority.

“We are becoming well known in our programme of teaching life lesson, exposure to high level of competition through travel, and affording them an opportunity to obtain a softball scholarship,” Lockhart revealed.

“To-date we have seen the fruits of our labour with four of our young ladies were successful in being accepted into The University of The Bahamas on a softball scholarship. Prior to that two were able to obtain a softball scholarship in the United States and currently two are on track of doing likewise. We have a core of young ladies registered on the NCSA platform, (Next College Student Athlete), formerly, National College Scouting Association.”

This platform is managed by former national team putcher Nerissa Lockhart, the vice president for softball and the pitching coach.

Other members of the board are Helena Cooper as secretary; Trudy Wilson as treasurer; Desmond Dean as player agent; Kendra Roberts as assistant safety officer and Nerissa Russell as the marketing/public relations officer. The directors are Heather Bruey Erica Roberts and Dwight Hield and the consultants are Churchill Tener-Knowles, Neko Grant, Eugene Thompson and Bernie Davis.