Patience, respect, listen to reach youth

Interview with Shepherd’s Cup 2024 Coach/Captain Kelford Bartholomew

We have successfully completed another year of Sports Ministry as highlighted in the Shepherd’s Cup Tournament 2024. Last year, the tournament consisted of a series of events which matriculated to the overall standing and award of the challenge trophy.

Congrats to 2024’s Champions: Holy Trinity, Arouca. They worked diligently and consistently in preparing their young people both spiritually and physically, which resulted in a worthy and glorious end. Well done!

We have the 2024 Shepherd Spirited Captain and Coach, Kelford Bartholomew.

His parish of St Philip and St James, Chaguanas, placed second in the overall tournament. However, Bartholomew’s enthusiastic leadership of his team shone through to elevate him as 2024’s Shepherd of Sports Ministry.

• Why did you assume this coaching leadership position? Would you believe the call to lead the Chaguanas Shepherd’s Cup Team came because of answered prayers. The day before, I asked God to show me how I can be of service in my Church and the very next day, Pamela Lewis, Head of the Youth Ministries within our parish of St Philip and St James called me and asked if I’d be interested in being part of this Ministry called Shepherd’s Cup. I thought to myself, God surely didn’t waste time in letting me know exactly where He needed me, so I said, ‘Yes, sure’.
• What does Sports Ministry mean to you and what impact have you seen it have on young people in your parish? Sports has always been an escape for me due to a difficult initiation into school as a young boy. I am dyslexic and at the time my parents, teachers nor I knew why I couldn’t perform as well academically as my peers in school. I felt really ashamed of my deficits compounded by the harsh scoldings, disciplining and abuse even, by the education system. Sports was my escape, and every break time at primary school, I’d be the first to run out of the classroom to do something I knew I was excellent at, sports. No one could run swifter, bowl faster, bat further, kick harder than I could. This Ministry is my way of reaching young people who just might feel like I did as a child due to dyslexia.
• Describe your coaching style and how it integrates with your faith. Before and after every coaching session, we pray and ask for God’s guidance, protection and wisdom. As a past Bible student from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Bible Institute, I help youths to better understand their faith and know why we, as Catholics, are unique. I share scripture readings weekly on our WhatsApp chat along with motivational quotes from saints. I’ve found that the adults in the Church sometimes give young people a difficult time. By practising patience, mutual respect and uncritical listening, we can encourage the youths to freely express how they feel. By doing this, I’m able to truly reach them at the point of their need through prayer, advice and counsel. These are things I never expected to be doing as a coach, but God has called me to be a Life Coach of sorts. I simply show up and God does the rest.
• List your parish team’s philosophy or core values. Our team’s core value is “We’re only as strong as our weakest link”. We recognise that we’re all imperfect, broken and wanting in so many ways, but when we stand together, linked arm by arm, even the weakest among us becomes an unbreakable joint. On the contrary, if we stand alone, we’re already defeated.
• What are your major challenges as a Sport’s Ministry Leader and how do you contend with them? One of our major challenges as a Youth Ministry is the belief by some parishioners that we’re not really a Ministry. Fortunately for us, the youths who are a part of the Ministry have emphasised to their parents, elders in the Church and community how important a Ministry Shepherd’s Cup is to them. Once again, God has worked in ways I can never have imagined using the youths themselves to break the stereotype. We still experience some challenges, but by God’s grace I’m seeing His work in the transformation in many of the youths involved in the parish’s Shepherd’s Cup programme. Financial assistance has also been a major challenge, but as a team, we came together to combat this by having a fundraiser last year to help with expenses. We did it as a family, with our parish priest (Fr Steve Ransome), Youth Coordinator (Pamela Lewis), parents, parishioners, coaches, Marriage Encounter Group, Men’s Group, youth leaders and the youths themselves contributing to our raising 90 per cent of our targeted funding. God has done it for us so many times over, proving to us at least that we’re a relevant Ministry and He will ensure we have all we need by His grace.
• How do you ensure inclusivity and community within your team? We ensure inclusivity by reaching out to our community for membership and assistance. Not all of our team consists of Catholic youth, as Shepherd’s Cup is a community-based initiative and we have approximately 20 per cent of our bonafide team members join through interaction with youths from our community. The only restriction is that Shepherd’s Cup caters for young people between the ages of 11 – 35, but this has not stopped us from including our younger members below 11 years and utilising our 35+ as Leadership Committee members who help in decision-making and coordinating activities.
• What are your off-season activities/expectations? So as a family, we like the team to get together and have something to eat. We’ve tried to do hikes or camp during our off-season but somehow everyone shows up when there’s food involved. Yes, we love to eat together, ole talk and reminisce on where we’ve come from as a team. From a small complement of just 20+ persons in our first year, to triple that in our third year.
• How do you handle poor sportsmanship/ losing? Our team has learnt the gifts associated with perseverance, faith, hope, and love for what you do. We’ve come far, and the team knows this. Poor sportsmanship is something our team doesn’t encourage. God has taken the helm in this. Every loss has come with a valuable lesson. I emphasise to the team, if we fail to learn the lesson, we as a team will continue to repeat our flaws. I’ve had a parent anxiously jump in to stop her son who was in a squabble with another young man during practice. I hesitated to intervene because I knew the team would not permit any such behaviour to escalate. However, due to her hastiness, she unfortunately didn’t see how the team would have ensured a peaceful and caring intervention.
• What do you do besides coaching? Well first and foremost, I’m a husband to a patient wife (Cindy Bartholomew) who’s supported my calling to be a Shepherd’s Cup Team coach. A father of three lovely daughters aged 19, 14 and 7. A son to parents I’m fortunate to have and honour. A big brother to my three younger blood brothers and a member of the Chaguanas Men’s Group which has helped solidify my efficacy as Shepherd’s Cup team coach. Other than this, I consider myself a humble servant of God, striving in discipleship.
• Where would you like to see Sports Ministry in the future? I’ve started a Shepherd’s Cup Youth Leadership Team, because I know succession planning is a vital step in the future success of any organisation. They (youth leadership) are in touch with the needs of the younger generation and should know what they desire and need. I’d personally like to see Sports Ministry taken seriously and not just seen as a pastime activity. Many young people have benefitted from this Ministry, and it should be given its recognition. This, for the most part, is what I aspire to see changed so that youths who need this avenue of fun, fellowship and fitness can freely do so.

If you are desirous of learning more about Youth Sports Ministry or require assistance in establishing Youth Sports Ministry, you can contact the Office of Youth Ministry at 343-9926/ 235-5329 ext 283 or email at cyc@catholictt.org. There are also many other ministries and relevant information for young people and people interested in working with young people via our website: www.catholicttyouth.org.