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Squash Pro, Cameron Stafford, chooses Guyana to pursue Coaching Certification
Fresh from the Professional Squash Association (PSA) circuit, 26 year old Cameron Stafford of the Cayman Islands, recently visited his father’s homeland Guyana to undertake his Level 1 and 2 England Squash Coaching Certificate with Guyana’s National Junior Coach Carl Ince (Elite Level 4 Coach). Alongside Trinidad’s National coach Ryan Jagessar, who Cameron describes as “one of the best coach’s in Caribbean”, the two visitors gained a wealth of theoretical and practical knowledge from Coach Ince as well as each other.
From left Coach Carl Ince, Nicholas Verwey (student) and Cameron Stafford Ryan Jagessar
and Samuel Ince-Carvalhal (student).
On the final day of the course, Cameron sat looking out at the serene picture of horses grazing in the fields on Coach Ince’s farm and said he feels humbled by the experience he has had over the past week by both the environment and the man conducting the course. He has travelled to almost every continent for training or to compete as a professional squash player, but his time on the Linden, Soesdyke Highway at this remote location has enhanced his development in ways he didn’t expect.
Not many squash players from the Caribbean make it into the world circuit but from a young age Cameron displayed a level of discipline and commitment that is at the core of a successful player. His hand eye coordination was nurtured by his grandma who tied a ball to a pole in her garden and put Cameron to stand in a hula hoop and hit the target. He stayed out in the yard the entire day hitting his mark with no thought of food or drink. This led to a successful junior tennis career before an attentive squash coach, Dean Watson, coerced him off the tennis court onto a squash court one rainy afternoon. Those four walls became his home as he immediately fell in love with the game.
Following obsessive hard work and dedication under Watson’s wing, Cameron toured with the junior team to compete in Junior CASA and first met Coach Ince in 2007 in Tortola. He remembers “Coach complemented me and said it was hard to coach against me. He gave me great advice even though he wasn’t my coach and that has helped me to this day”
Moving into his senior career, coaches Mark Forster, who focused on fitness, and Lucas Buit on court training, contributed greatly to his successful competitive outcomes, but the PSA player now wants to develop his coaching skills in order to help future generations and inspire young players in his home town. His passion and enthusiasm are contagious as he determines; “I want to bring the next best thing into the game.”
With access to a host of other coaches for this course, he explains that the reasons he chose to take 3 flights to come to Guyana is that he wanted to work with someone who genuinely cared and wanted to share their knowledge. “I have so much respect for Carl as he wants to see others in the Caribbean succeed”. The Caymanian has always wanted to know why Guyana’s National teams were so successful and was impressed by the achievement of Nicolette Fernandes who was an early student of Ince. He wholeheartedly believes it is largely down to this man and states; “There was no hesitation in choosing to take the Level 1 & 2 in Guyana with Coach Ince and learn from the master of success.”
Eager to take his new knowledge of different ways to teach, different techniques and new information back to the Cayman Islands, he outlines a few of the areas he now feels more proficient in such as programme planning, running tournaments and the coaching approach of mixing beginners and intermediates. He sums it up by saying, “I’ve learnt so much that I never knew existed and asked so many questions… I want to be the best and the only way to do that is to learn from the best!”
After complimenting the junior players he worked with throughout the course and the hospitality of the Guyanese people, Cameron spoke of the advantage of being out in the middle of the rainforest with no distractions giving him time to process and digest all the new information. He smiles as he makes his final comment that he will take away Coach’s life philosophy; “The only way to the top is hard work and dedication to your craft”, and adopt it as his own.
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