_{Photo: Delille – Norman Sutherland wins Jr 200m}

by William Ysaguirre

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Sept. 24, 2024

Belizean athlete Norman Sutherland has commenced studies at Saint Elizabeth Technical High School in Santa Cruz, Jamaica, on an athletic scholarship that covers the costs of books and tuition. He will be training under coach Neil Harrison, who saw Sutherland’s talent when he visited Belize in June of this year. Norman first caught the coaches’ and scouts’ eyes when he won gold in the Junior 200-meter race and silver in the 100-meter race at the National Secondary Schools Sports Association (NSSSA) athletics championships at the Marion Jones Sports Complex on April 27.

His mentor, Cojac Smith, who up until recently was president of the Belize Athletics Association (BAA), was able to source funds to cover Sutherland’s food and lodging and other expenses while in Jamaica so that he could take up the scholarship offer, and Norman arrived at his new school on Tuesday, September 24.

The Belize Athletics Association had elected Cojac Smith as its new president at a Special General Assembly on April 6 this year, and since then he has been working with coach Gregory Meyers, father of teen phenom CARIFA gold medalist Demitri Meyers, to identify Belizean athletes with talent, and to match them with educational institutions which may offer them scholarships. They began collaborating with coaches and the different principals from schools in the Caribbean, and at this year’s CARIFTA championships in St. George’s, Grenada, they invited a few coaches from Jamaica to conduct a workshop here in Belize, where they were able to meet the young athletes.

They also offered a scholarship to 14-year-old Jaaden Williams, who had represented Belize at the CARIFTA Games, but due to his tender age, he was not ready to leave the security of his parents’ home, and so did not take up the offer.

Upon Smith’s return from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, a rift apparently surfaced between Smith and the BAA, resulting in the BAA declaring Smith to no longer be the president of the Association. Thus, any other inquiries from other athlete prospects seeking to apply for the athletic scholarships were met by a disclaimer from the BAA secretary Kimberly Williams, who said the BAA had no knowledge of the scholarship donors or the recipients.

No new elections have been held to elect a new BAA president, and Smith said he has referred the dispute to his attorneys, who will be handling the matter. In the meantime, he pledged to continue to work with Coach Meyers and others to develop athletics in Belize.