The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER a successful 2022 season in which they saw six athletes make the Carifta team that finished second to Jamaica in Jamaica, Fast Forward Athletics Track Club’s head coach Everette Fraser said he’s pleased with the direction his club is headed in.

According to Fraser, this year they have seen the largest graduating class since its establishment in 2012 with 13 student-athletes transitioning to tertiary level education, both at the University of the Bahamas and a number of colleges and universities in the United States.

“We wish to congratulate our graduates and commemorate their accomplishments,” Fraser said. “We had some of them like Zachary Evans going to Purdue University; Paige Archer is going to Central Florida University and Javnya Walcourt to Texas Christian University.

“These are some big schools and some of them are going to some NAIA schools. We also have some athletes who didn’t do so well academically, but they did very well athletically and have an opportunity to go to junior college to further their education.”

Overall, Fraser said his club surpassed all of their expectations this year and it only bodes will for the future of Fast Track Athletics as he also congratulated his coaching staff, the parents, guardians and friends for their tremendous support during the season.

“We encourage you athletes as you all transition to college and pursue other aspirations,” Fraser said. “It has been a most rewarding experience to watch you grow athletically and, in some instances, surpass goals and expectations.”

As they prepare to embark on their journey, Fraser said he anticipates that the athletes will continue to perform both academically and athletically in all of their endeavours.

“The programme that I put them through has set them up to achieve great things,” Fraser said. “We didn’t put the envelopes in high school, so they have a lot of room to achieve in college, so I expect some of these kids to put on our future World Championship and Olympic Games teams and hopefully become medalists as well.”

With their programme being a bit depleted from the top tier performers, who are now moving onto the next phase of their athletic and academic careers, Fraser said they are looking forward to seeing a lot more of their younger athletes moving up to fill in the void left behind.

“We have a lot of young athletes ages nine and ten, who are striving to achieve the same thing as these older athletes,” Fraser said. “At the end of the day, you want to be able to get an athletic scholarship and further your education.

“So once we started back up after the break for COVID-19, the kids were right back at it, putting in the work and now they are eager to go out there are perform. They are excited about wearing their school uniform (Queen’s College) and how they are being treated as athletes.

“This has and will continue to inspire our athletes to do very well. That is why we can feel proud of having the biggest graduating group ever going off to school. This is something that we know will continue to grow because the younger athletes are eager to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone on ahead of them.”

Among the list of graduates heading to college are the following:

Javonya Valcout - Texas Christian University; Paige Archer - University of Central Florida; Zachary Evans - Purdue University; Kasha Neilly - Southern Illinois University; Kameron Smith - University of South Florida; Raven Pratt and Brendnado Strachan - Mobile University Alabama; Ahmad Evans - Park University, Missouri; Tiana Culmer - University of Missouri; Keano Ferguson and Jamal Flowers - Colby Community College and Solange Carter and Torran Pinder - University of Bahamas.