2019 Junior CASA Coach Ince expected Gold from Boys team Proud of overall team effort

Jul 24, 2019 Sports

After a 12-year winning streak, Guyana lost the team title when were dethroned on home soil by Barbados in 2017 but playing in the 2019 Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Junior Championship in Trinidad, the Guyanese Boys produced a Gold Medal performance while the Girls competed hard to win the silver and Guyana, in their best showing since 2016, finished second place. The Guyanese also had four Gold Medals (2 boys & 2 girls) in the Individual categories.

Team Guyana at the Airport in Trinidad. Coach Carl Ince is at right.

Vastly experienced, committed, Knowledgeable and hard-working, National Squash Coach Carl Ince, was once a guitarist with a band driven across England by former West Indian fast bowler, Roy Gilchrist and later a martial artist before he got involved in Squash due to a taunt in England.
The garrulous Ince spoke with Kaieteur Sports yesterday just after the team arrived home on Sunday evening and shared his views on the tournament.
“Although I didn’t say this at the time, I was almost certain that we would win because of how well the boys had prepared and the amount of time spent covering all aspects of the game. The girls on the other hand, didn’t have as much time to prepare but nevertheless I thought they had done enough to get to the finals which is all we needed to win the overall,” the proud Coach who is a grandfather to his young charges.
The 75-year-old veteran Coach who hails from Plaisance, East Coast Demerara but now resides on the Linden Highway were he has a training facility on his Farm, revealed that the individuals with the outstanding performances were Michael Alphonso and 16-year-old Squash sensation Shomari Wiltshire, who won Guyana two gold medals in the Boys division in the U-15 & U-17s respectively.
Wiltshire, the son of former Southern Caribbean Squash Champion Garfield Wiltshire, won the U-15 title last year before dominating the U-17 category this time around.
Kirstin Gomes (U-15) and Abosaide Cadogan (U-19) captured Guyana’s other two Gold medals in the Girls division as the South Americans made a clean sweep of the U-15s & U-17s.
Coach Ince, left the then British Guiana at age 16 and spent many years in Manchester, England where he got married and had a boy and three girls, Craig, Susan, Caren and Lauraine.
He is the grandfather of National U-17 boy’s player Samuel Ince-Carvalhal, who won Bronze for his Country in the Individual event, Samuel is the son of Lauraine.
“In the team events they all performed more than satisfactory. So much so that if it hadn’t been for our number one under seventeen girl ( Abosaide Cadogan) having to return to Guyana for an important interview and having to miss our matches between Jamaica and Bermuda, I feel quite sure we would have won the overall title. Our main challenge was being able to beat Barbados boys,” said Ince.
“The positives of this trip was our players have reached the level that’s needed to take the title back. As long as we keep training we should still be in that position to win next year’s Casa.”
Ince said he believes the overall standard of squash in Guyana is fairly good and is getting better but for it to improve even further, especially for the younger players, there needs to be better access to training facilities and the maintaining the priceless parent support.
“I cannot tell you how proud we all are of the maximum effort of the boy’s team namely Shomari, Mohryan, Mikey, Nicholas, Sam, Samaria and not forgetting little Grant. For the girls, who weren’t all available but nevertheless, gave there all for Guyana. Thanks to everyone who played a part in our successful trip,” Coach Ince concluded. (Sean Devers)