UWI’s Cabralis talks sports management in Cairo

SHERDON PIERRE

UNIVERSITY of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer and former long-standing national female hockey player Sherlan Cabralis created history by being a guest speaker as part of the FIFA/ International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) network on Tuesday at the University of Cairo, Egypt.

The FIFA/CIES is an International University Network which was founded in 2004 and aims to bring together universities from all over the world. The network has created one common curriculum of continuing education in Sports Management.

Cabralis, who is the programme director and coordinator of the various Sports Management degrees at UWI, presented on the topic – “Managing your resources”. Cabralis, who captained TT to hockey gold at the 2002 Central America and Caribbean Games and played at the first Indoor Hockey World Cup in 2003, said, “Each country is entitled to invite guest speakers to talk on any topic in Sports Management and I was specially invited.”

On her experience in Cairo, she said, “It was excellent. I learned that, regardless of the audience, we all have similar issues in sports administration. It is important we share our knowledge and learn from others, because I believe sport is universal and we all have similar challenges in managing our resources – whether it is physical, human, technology and intellectual.”

She added, “Students desire to see change in administration of sports. Diversity is viewed as one of the keys to influencing change.”

Cabralis completed her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where she majored in Sport Management. She went on to complete a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Temple University in Philadelphia. She is currently the coach/manager of Malvern Sports Club U-19 girls hockey team and is a Pan-American field hockey trainer.