On Wednesday, local organizers officially introduced the complete roster of athletes that will represent host nation Saint Lucia at the upcoming Windward Islands Secondary School Games (WISG), during a public ceremony held at the Euralis Bouty Pavilion within the Vigie Multipurpose Sports Complex. Kicking off this Saturday, July 25, the eight-day multi-sport competition will bring together 62 participating athletes from four Windward Islands nations: host Saint Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. Competitors will vie for top honors across five core sports – athletics, basketball, boys’ football, girls’ netball, and volleyball – with matches spread across four purpose-built competition venues across the island. The 2026 iteration of the games receives primary backing from two major sponsors: Canadian Bank Note and Windward Islands Lotteries.
Saint Lucia’s national roster features a lineup of standout young athletes headed by CARIFTA high jump champion Destinee Cenac. The girls’ netball contingent is led by Under-16 team captain Naija Ferdinand, with additional key players including Lizzy Dorvius and Hayla Samuel. For the volleyball competition, Saint Lucia will field talented young athletes Abigail Evans and Cumaury Toato, while the men’s football squad boasts a deep roster of promising youth talent including Josh Hunte, Thierry Morille, Dervaj Edward, Rickelme Lionel, and A’Dee Germe, several of whom hold youth international caps.
Clivus Jules, director of sports for Saint Lucia’s Ministry of Education, Youth Development and Sports, shared his assessment of the host team’s months-long preparation process. “There’s always room for refinement when it comes to getting ready for a major competition like this, but we have prioritized shoring up the weak points that held us back at last year’s tournament,” Jules explained. He highlighted the deliberate preparation steps taken across different disciplines: the host nation’s men’s basketball team traveled to Martinique for a targeted warm-up tournament months in advance, and has been training consistently in the lead-up to the games. For track and field athletes, the local program keeps competitors integrated with their home club training routines through the National Championships, after which the full national squad gathers for centralized team training. While he noted incremental improvements can still be made, Jules expressed overall satisfaction with the team’s preparation status.
For football, Jules added that all of Saint Lucia’s young footballers are currently active in the island’s semi-pro league, meaning they already maintain consistent match fitness heading into the WISG. “The only remaining step is to bring all the players together to build on-field chemistry and coordinate their team play, to set us up for a strong performance. But I am genuinely pleased with how preparation has gone,” he said.
First established in 1912, the Windward Islands Secondary School Games ranks among the longest-running continuous school sports competitions in the global calendar. This marks the first time Saint Lucia has hosted the tournament since 2018; the nation last claimed the overall WISG title in 2019, and finished third out of the four competing participating nations in both the 2023 and 2025 editions.
Jules noted that visiting delegations consistently prioritize competing in Saint Lucia due to the island’s reputation for high-quality event hosting and top-tier sports infrastructure. “When we held the directors’ coordination meeting several months back, all participating delegations expressed full satisfaction with how our planning was progressing, and that same enthusiasm has carried through to their arrival this week,” he said. “All athlete registrations are finalized, travel itineraries are confirmed, and every logistical detail – from accommodation to catering to on-ground operations – is fully in place. We are ready to welcome everyone and deliver a successful games.”
Competition gets underway early Saturday morning with athletics field events hosted at Mindoo Phillip Park, with track events kicking off later the same day at Soufrière Stadium. Entry to all athletics sessions is open to the public free of charge. Court-based sports including basketball, netball, and volleyball will begin Sunday at the Beausejour Gymnasium, while all football matches will take place at the Francis Baba Lastic grounds in Gros Islet.