CAY HILL--The St. Maarten Soccer Educational Foundation and the National Sports Institute are preparing to go viral. The two organizations have brought in interns from the Institute of Sport Management and Business in Amsterdam to help.
The trio of second year students will work with the two sports organizations to increase their presence on social media and formulate a plan to engage more people.
“Social media is the communication tool of the future,” said David Forsythe. When he was the president of the soccer foundation he brought in the first inter from the sports management school three years ago. The following year he brought in three interns and now as the director of NSI he continues to tap into the school to help both the students and the island.
The three inters will be on St. Maarten for 10 weeks and will work out of the Raoul Illidge Sports Complex in Cay Hill.
Fiona Clarius will be working with NSI. She will be filming a variety of local sporting events and interviewing the athletes. She will post the videos on Facebook, YouTube and will even have a 3o minute segment on television.
The focus of her project will be the Inter-insular competition, a four Island tournament for track and field, futsal, volleyball and basketball. Invited to compete in addition to St. Maarten will be Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. Basketball and volleyball will be played on St. Maarten March 23 to 26. Track and field and futsal will be played in Curaçao from March 30 to April 2.
Andreas Becca will be working with the Soccer Educational Foundation as that group celebrate its 25 anniversary.
He will be filming the on-going elementary school tournament that plays every Saturday at the Cruyff Court in Belvedere.
“All to often you here there is nothing to do on St. Maarten, explained Forsythe. “There are a lot of sports and we just want the people to know what is available.”
Forsythe continued to explain there are sports for young children starting as early as age 5 all the way to seniors.
In fact on Friday there was an 80th birthday celebration game at Raoul Illidge Sports Complex for Lloyd Hinds who still plays with the veterans on a weekly basis.
NSI is also in the process of organizing an early development program to introduce children to sports as young as age three.
“I really want to engage the readers,' said Becca. He explained it is not enough to have someone come to your Facebook page and “like” something. He wants the people to read the content, look at the videos and make comments and even suggestions.
He wants to include surveys on site.
Jay Stok is into basketball. While he will be helping the other two interns with the filming of the many sports events, but he wants to coach.
“I want to teach a young group of children the fundamentals of the game,” said Stok.
Stok will be targeting young beginning players age 8 to 10 and a second group of intermediate age 11 to 13. He envisions developing a play book for the children. The younger ones will train at Raoul Illidge Monday and Wednesday afternoons and the older children Tuesdays and Thursdays. Practice is schedule to start February 20 and will be open to boys and girls. Registration will be at Sports Complex from 9:00am to 6:00pm daily.
The final part of the project will be a three on three basketball tournament.
For more information about registering for basketball training or to get your sport featured on NSI contact 542-2039.
