By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

HEAD coach Travano McPhee said it will be interesting to finally get to coach his daughter Isabell Munroe when they travel to Trinidad & Tobago for the Bahamas swimming team’s quest for its seventh straight CARIFTA title.

Munroe, the youngest female swimmer at the age of 11, was selected to Team Bahamas and will compete in the girls’ 11-12 division during the swimming competition from Saturday to Tuesday. 

“This is a very special moment in my life. It’s good to see her following in her father’s footsteps,” said McPhee, a former CARIFTA swimmer now coaching for the past decade. “Like I always tell her, she will be better than me. She’s way ahead of where I was for her age. I expect more out of her than I would have for me.”

Munroe, the youngest female on the team at 11, said with her having her dad as her coach, she gets more than just a pep talk. 

“I get to spend more time with him,” said the St Andrew’s sixth grader. “So I think that is one of the things that will help me to get better.” All things considered; Munroe said the only pressure she knows she will have in Trinidad & Tobago is to “make him proud. But I’m glad that I have a lot of the older swimmers on the team who I can look up to for advice and I get to learn from their experiences.”

While there is the father/daughter combo to watch, Elwood Donaldson said he’s just as proud of the accomplishments of his two daughters Skarlette and Samirah Donaldson, who are competing in the swim and open water competition respectively.

“I’m proud. They really worked hard,” said Donaldson, whose wife and their children’s mother, Chenelle Donaldson will be joining them in Trinidad on Friday. “It’s a relief for me that they both made it. So one can’t come home with the stuff and the other don’t. But either way, I’m very proud of them for doing it.”

Simarah, who will be contesting the girls 14-15 5K open water race for the first time on her second trip to CARIFTA, said she wants to produce a specific time that would place her in the top thee and make her team-mates and family proud.

“I’ve been training, even before CAR?IFTA trials, and working out and listening to my coach, so I think all of this work that I have in, will come out at CARIFTA,” said Donaldson, a 10th grader at Queen’s College. 

The some time track athlete said she’s even more enthused because she’s finally going to be on the same CARIUFTA team with her little sister, Skarlette, whom they both competed on the Goodwill Games’ team together before.

“This isn’t new to us,” Shamirah said. “I don’t feel my pressure, especially with having my sister there. I just need to go out and do my best. I think as a team, we will come out on top because we have some good swimmers.”

Skarlette Donaldson, a seventh grader at Queen’s College who is entered in the girls 11-12 division in swimming, said as a first-time competitor, she would like nothing better than to get top ten in all of her events and to get some points for Team Bahamas.

“It feels fine. I’ve been on the team with her a couple of times,” said Skarlette about her older sister Samirah. “I just want to do good and to represent my country. We have some really fast swimmers so I know we will win the seven-peat.”

Father Donaldson said their older daughter, set the stage when she made the CARIFTA team in 2022 and now they are continuing to carry on the Donaldson tradition. 

“Even though it’s hard work, I’m proud of them for making the team,” he said. “I always tell my oldest daughter, who also played tennis, that their sisters saw her dedication and commitment and they’ve continued on.”