The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE University of The Bahamas (UB) Mingoes have welcomed 25 freshmen student athletes to join the respective sporting teams. The Mingoes have fielded competitive women and men’s teams in basketball, soccer, track and field, golf, volleyball, softball and cross country over the years. With fresh faces now joining the fold, the UB Athletics Department is ready for the new sporting year.

Kimberley Rolle, director of the UB Athletics department, talked about the overall goal of the sporting teams this year.

“UB Athletics is looking forward to a very productive athletic year. As always we expect to compete at a high level in all our sports, making the playoffs is always the goal because we believe once you make the playoffs anything can happen,” Rolle said.

She added that although the newest additions to the various teams makes them younger, they also believe that some of the freshmen will be impactful first-year players.

With the Mingoes women’s volleyball team returning home following competition at the Florida National University, Rolle is looking forward to future international competitions.

She said that she believes the Mingoes will have solid performances in international competition but they are expecting to be competitive in all of the games whether local or international. “Our men’s soccer team has a strong freshman class that will complement some of our top talent from last year and although very young we [also] expect strong performances from our track and field team,” she said.

The Mingoes’ athletic director was particularly excited about all of the teams this year but is definitely interested in seeing how this year’s soccer team performs, which she believes is one of the more talented teams they have had on paper in years.

The university hosted open tryouts from August 21-26 across various sporting disciplines which yielded some young talent that are immediately expected to impact the rosters and force competition for starting roles on the various teams.

For Rolle, the ultimate goal of the department remains unchanged going into this sporting year.

“UB Athletics continues to push toward our ultimate goal of international intercollegiate affiliation. This is a university effort and we are moving in a deliberate and positive direction toward international accreditation.

“As we move in this direction, we continue to engage in the best practices, recruit and retain, and enhance our processes and protocols to improve our overall effectiveness and efficiencies,” she said.

The UB Mingoes are scheduled to be in action at the Thomas A Robinson national stadium for the Cross Country Invitational on September 30.