The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

HOLLAND College, boasting of having 11 players from the Bahamas on their current football roster, is hoping that their weekend visit will enable them to increase the changes of even more players participating for the Hurricanes in the Atlantic Football League in Canada.

Holland College, which featured Xavier Hanna, Dale Pickstock Jr, Arien McDonald, Eugene McMinns, Ishmael Strachan, Leslie Greene, Dale Knowles, Revello Williamson, Cardell Rolle, Akeeb Rolle and Garrett Cesaire, conducted a one-day mini football camp on Saturday at the Roscoe Davies Developmental Football Centre at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex.

On Sunday, Holland College hosted a baseball camp at the St Andrew’s Field of Dreams where they are hoping to add some players to their Hurricanes’ roster. Holland College is the alma mater of former men’s basketball player Donathon Moss and current female basketball player Ashley Moss.

The sporting camps were held in conjunction with the school fair that was conducted on Friday night at the Melia Nassau Beach Resort where Jeff Walker, manager of the campus at Prince Edward Island, Canada, said they are looking forward to offering more than $50,000 in scholarships in the fine arts.

Walker and vice president Michael O’Grady were assisted by Karl McCartney, a Bahamian professional player with the Calvary Stampeders in Alberta, Canada in the Canadian Football League.

“As expected, we saw a great group of young athletes with all kinds of speed and tremendous size. Overall, we saw more big players than we’ve seen in the past years,” Walker said. “We are looking for big players, so that was very fortunate.

“We had a couple of surprises. We saw some guys that we had never seen before or heard about and they performed really well. As always, we had a very impressive group of Bahamian athletes.”

After the workout sessions, the Holland College representatives narrowed down the crop of 40-plus players to about 12, of whom they expect to end up signing at least half to their roster for enrolment in August.

“It was an unbelievable turnout. We were really happy with the amount of guys who came out,” O’Grady said. “Everybody worked hard. There was a lot of talent on the field, but obviously, we can’t take them all.”

O’Grady, however, said some of the players they were really impressed with were Jamal Storr, Rupert Stubbs, Jamal Sweeting, Donovan Stubbs and DeQuinn Wilmore. He noted that each player they had an interest in were presented with a package from Holland College that they will take through the recruitment process.

As a Bahamian player, who was home on vacation, McCartney said he was delighted to be able to lend his support to the Canadian visitors as his whole objective is to see more Bahamians get an education and play football with the view of one day becoming a pro football player as well in the CFL.

“It will be good to see more Bahamians excel and actually learn a new culture and whatever they learn, they can bring back home and make the Bahamas a better place,” McCartney said.

Having had a chance to work out with some of the players in the camp, McCartney said Holland College is definitely getting richer by recruiting more Bahamians to play on their Hurricanes football team.

“There’s a lot of talent in the Bahamas. It’s just about getting the opportunity,” he said. “So some of the guys here have the potential to play professionally and some have the potential to go to college and get a degree. It all depends on who Holland College wants to take.”

At least two of the players singled out, hope that they had put in sufficient work to get the final nod to go to Holland College.

Zhivago McSweeney, a six-foot-five-inch 270-pounder, and his brother Rupert Stubbs, 6-5 and 290, who also plays basketball, said they felt they made an impression on the scouts.

“The camp was good. It was set up good. The drills that they had us go through, me and my brother worked on them a few times and so we were prepared for this,” McSweeney said. “I know I could have gone a little faster in the 40-yard. I only ran a 5-2, so I wasn’t too proud of that. But it was good. We did our best.”

And Darrel Moss, one of the quicker players in the camp, said his background from playing flag football with Bahamasair and the Galaxy Invaders has really paid off.

“I am glad I’m here. I’m glad I made it this far,” Moss said. “I like it a lot. I love the sport and I will do whatever it takes. I got to learn that you have to move faster and not run as heavy as I used to. I feel I’m much faster this year.”