And now for something much lighter...
It's the English Sport that's somewhat resembles American football, but rugby is much rougher, and it's been gaining popularity across pitches in Belize.
And on Sunday, for the third time, a national Rugby "sevens" team has been formed and is ready to begin preparation for post-COVID regional games. We heard all about the young and talented team from Rugby Football Union founder Tony Gillings who this afternoon told Cherisse Halsall that he plans to take this national team all the way to the Olympics.
You see guys working out on a pitch like this you'd think it's football but it's actually something completely different. It's a rugby workout.
Tony Gillings, Founder and President, Belize Rugby Football Union
"We're very lucky in this country. Belize has an incredible amount of talent amongst the youth and so our team is made up of people that have been training at home, using home gyms and running around the streets and stuff, we've got some really fast runners, we've got some really good ball carriers and ball runners as well as kickers and the captain a guy called Raheem Cummings, he was the captain for the Belize national team that played in El Salvador last year where we played in the Central American Rugby tournament, he's a super, super talented captain very inspirational he motivates the guys really well. And then amongst the other players, they're really good really young, really strong really talented."
And Gillings has big plans for this group:
Tony Gillings, Founder and President, Belize Rugby Football Union
"Our path, our development path is to get a team to go to the Paris Olympics in 2024, it's gonna be tough because it's a long road it's a lot of qualifications to get there and Rugby in Belize is very young we've only been around since 2015 but we're doing very well and I am super excited because if there is one thing that this country has in abundance, and that is youth talented young fit healthy youth and the sad part is that we don't really have enough opportunity for these guys for a long time sport has been way down on the agenda of anybody you've only got to look at the stadium's and our sport's facilities- to see that it's not really been given the priority that it needs. So right now we are looking to expand Rugby we're looking to get into schools, we want to get rugby into community groups, we want to be able to say to the youth listen there is a sport out there for you to use. It will allow you to use all of your aggression all of your frustrations in life take them out on the ruby field get to form teams. It's a fantastic community to get into and I am super excited with the lads that we have in this leam but there's always room for more."
"Rugby is quite a tough sport and you really want to stat Rugby players very young so we are hoping to get a Jr. Youth Rugby league set up so that the young kids get into it and they don't do the really tough physical stuff but you learn football skills like passing skills, kicking skills and we do touch rugby so there's no physically tackling stuff for the youngsters they just have to run and chase the guy or the girl because there's girl's rugby too and touch them and they have to let go of the ball. but the essence of rugby is building camaraderie it's building teams and building friendships so if you start them really young they get into that and then they can progress through the youth age, through the adult age and the sports gets tougher for them physically for them then."
Belize boasts six rugby teams: the Hopkins panthers in Hopkins, the Cayo Baymen in San Ignacio, the Belmopan Cavaliers, the Belize City Vikings, the Orange Walk Black Mambas, and the San Pedro Sharks.
