The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

A NEW initiative seeks to provide a social media platform for athletes aimed at creating a multi-faceted database with the tagline, “Be seen and have fun.”

Bahamian entrepreneur Marques Williams said his Next Phenom programme aims to fill a void in youth sports in the Bahamas and throughout the region through a number of unique techniques.

“Next Phenom is a tech company geared toward helping the development of youth sports worldwide. It is a website that we want to develop into the “LinkedIn” for sports. A place where athletes can build a sports résumé, a place where athletes can interact with other coaches, athletes, recruiters and any kind of sports influences. It’s a community developed to enhance the athlete’s overall performance and create a better overall athlete,” he said. “This region produces more Olympic medallists per capita than anyplace in the world. We need to harness our potential that we have and find even more ways to expose those talents.”

Williams and the Next Phenom programme was selected from over 2,730 international entrants as one the 32 finalists in the Talent and Innovation Competition of the Americas.

The TIC was organised by the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT) - a business accelerator platform for young entrepreneurs to foster their business ideas and start-ups. TIC Americas provides guidance, training, mentoring, seed capital, investment and a wide international network.

The programme is tailored to help entrepreneurs in their journey to growth. Every year top innovative business solutions are identified, trained and coached to foster more sustainable and inclusive development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Since 2007, more than 31,709 young entrepreneurs from 48 countries have participated in TIC Americas, registering a total of 13,360 business proposals.

Williams cited the experience in the competition, in addition to the soft launch of Next Phenom in November 2014 as the stepping stone towards greater exposure and a full launch.

To that end, the organisation will host a “Youth Sports Symposium,” October 29-30 at the Atlantis resort, at a cost of $100 for registered participants.

“Right now we have a beta website and we are developing a prototype. We wanted to see the interest from athletes and coaches and the response was good. The feedback was generally positive. Since that we determined that we have to get more marketing power behind the brand, so one of the things we proposed was a ‘Youth Sports Symposium.’ We want to find out all the issues from persons in regard to what is going on with youth sports. What are the good aspects, bad aspects, what needs to be improved, the direction it’s headed and all other influences in the industry,” he said. “With this symposium we hope to address several issues. We want to bring more focus on sports medicine, proper nutrition, health and fitness - all are major issues. We want to target physical education teachers because we want to make sure that athletes are learning what they’re supposed to be learning. We want to bring to light sports recruitment, explain what scouts and recruiters are looking for.”

The symposium is open to coaches, teachers, sports camp counsellors, parents, athletes seeking further development anybody who has an interest in the sports world and how it can develop.

Williams said he drew from personal experiences as the catalyst for the Next Phenom idea.

“The idea came from my own experiences. I went to New York, I played basketball occasionally so I decided to walk-on and tryout for the basketball team. It sparked an idea in my head because I know we have so much talent in the region, because I was wondering, ‘if someone had seen me in high school, maybe I could be like one of those guys that got granted a scholarship,’ it made me wonder how could we go about that.” he said. “The second aspect to it came when I moved to London when I was working and I wanted to play basketball at a casual level, so it took me a while to play with a basketball group and it took a while for me to find a group that could fit my skills and schedule. I was wondering that if I’m creating this platform to help coaches see athletes, there’s also a need for athletes to find other athletes. So it will not only be a recruiting website but a social website as well to connect athletes.”

As for its long term goals, Williams said he is optimistic about the impact Next Phenom can have.

“Sports development helps young people to understand problem solving, they learn to interact with others and teamwork is important. The use of sport is a social benefit. Adults have their own agendas so with a lot of the fun gone, a lot of kids haven’t been involved in sports. We want to focus and ensure that the youth enjoy sports and they can share experiences with others around the world doing the same thing,” he said. “We allow them to build the database themselves. It will create scholarship opportunities. We will also have interactive challenges. We want to make this community where it is all about sports.”