SPORTS SECTION E
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2025
UB Athletics, Page 7
SAC honours athletes By BRENT STUBBS Chief Sports Editor bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
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t was a red letter day as St Augustine’s College yesterday honoured its athletes and swimmers for their stellar performances at its annual Bahamian Day celebrations on its campus of Bernard Road and Prince Charles Drive. Principal Marici Thompson said it was important for the student body to share in the excitement that the 24 members from the Big Red Machine’s track team and two swimmers did as members of Team Bahamas in Trinidad & Tobago over the Easter holiday weekend. The event capped off a week of activities that included Bahamian games in Red Square, Bahamian pastries were sold and a Bahamian tuck shop day. “Today is our annual Bahamian Day and so we choose to celebrate all things Bahamian,” she
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said. “We have a culture show, Timico ‘Sawyer Boy’ Sawyer is our guest speaker and Preston ‘Puzzle’ Wallace is our entertainer. “We also use this opportunity to celebrate our track and field athletes,” she said. “We wanted to honour all of those athletes and swimmers who won medals at BAISS meets and we also wanted to celebrate our CARIFTA athletes and swimmers before their peers. “We wanted the students to show their appreciation to them and or those who are aspiring to become athletes or are athletes and didn’t make it, they can get a chance to see what it’s like to be one of our athletes we celebrate.” Each member on the CARIFTA team received personal portraits of themselves in red frames designed and created by SAC’s public relations officer Asheka Culmer, who noted they will be placed on SAC’s Wall of Fame in Red Square. Jason Edwards, head of the Physical Education Department, said all of the athletes, including those honoured for their participation in the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools’ track and field championships, deserve the recognition they got. “They put in some hard work this year within the coaches,” Edwards said. “But there’s some more big things to come in the future from these athletes.” He noted that the world got to see the resilience of the Big Red Machine after Jachario Wilson dropped the baton on the first leg, but regained it, got back into the race and Neely was able to cap it off with a tremendous come-frombehind on the anchor leg. The other two members on the team were Jireh Woodside and Dylan Simon.
EAGAN Neely looks at his portrait on the Wall of Fame at St Augustine’s College. Wilson and Neely also highlighted Team Bahamas’ second place finish with 37 medals, including 16 gold, 13 silver and eight bronze. Wilson picked up a pair of gold in the under-17 boys’ 110 and 400m hurdles and Neely struck for a double in the 200 and 400m. They both also ran on the winning 4 x 100 and 4 x 400m relays for four gold each. Neely, a 16-year-old 10th grader, said seeing everybody cheering for them when their names were called was very heartwarming. “To bring back all those gold medals from
CARIFTA was very exciting,” he said. “I’m so glad that we were able to have this celebration to share the experience with our friends at school.” On his performance at Penn, Neely said it was his “confidence in my hard work” that enabled him to go out there and do his best. But if he had to choose one over the other, he said it would have been the trip to Trinidad. “I must admit that after I watched Jahcario fall on the first leg, I was ‘oh boy,’ how are we going to get back in this race,” he said. “But after watching Jireh
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and Dylan do their thing, I just knew I had to bring it home.” Wilson, a 15-year-old 10th grader, said it felt good that he went over there and did his best. He thanked the principal and the school for recognising him and his team-mates for their accomplishments. “The crowd was live and my team-mates gave me a lot of support, especially Eagan Neely,” Wilson said. As for Penn, Wilson said he was proud of his teammates for their best and picking up the slack after he had his misfortune at the beginning.
Darvinique Dean, representing the female competitors, noted that she and her team-mates were just as elated as Neely and Wilson for the gesture shown by the school. “I’m happy that we are being saluted by our SAC family. This is the best school and came out to support us,” she stated. “So I’m very happy for all of us on the team.” On a personal note, it wasn’t the type of performance that Dean anticipated in Trinidad. She didn’t get a medal in
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‘BUDDY’ AND WARRIORS RETURN HOME WITH ANOTHER CHANCE TO CLOSE OUT SERIES WITH ROCKETS By JANIE MCCAULEY AP Sports Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — With his team trailing by 27 points to the red-hot Houston Rockets at halftime, coach Steve Kerr pulled Golden State emotional leader Draymond Green aside for a quick chat and to ask his opinion. Should the Warriors plan to save their starters for what looked like an inevitable Game 6 in two days if things became any more out of hand after intermission? Green suggested Kerr
GOLDEN State Warriors guard Chavano “Buddy” Hield. (AP) should give the group five more minutes to see what could be done on the deficit. It only got worse. And Kerr
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THE SPORTS May CALENDAR SOFTBALL MASTERS POSTSEASON THE Masters Softball Association’s best-of-three championship series and Dudley ‘Bones’ Moxey Memorial Challenge is scheduled to take place this weekend at the Archdeacon William Thompson Softball Park at the Southern Recreation Grounds. The action is slated to start
at 1pm on Saturday with the Drifters facing the Scorpions in the Dudley ‘Bones’ Moxey Memorial Challenge. Then game one of the championship series will be played at 3pm between the KC Royals and the Corner Boyz. They will return on Sunday at 2pm with game two of the championship between the
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