This afternoon the executive of the National Secondary School Sports Association held a press conference to celebrate the signing of an agreement for sponsorship between the association and the Bowen and Bowen Company for their regional and national secondary school tournaments. The terms of the agreement were revealed and the president of the association spoke about its benefits.

Deon Sutherland
"We signed an agreement with Bowen and Bowen - a sponsorship agreement to sponsor our national and regional tournaments that are held for 5 disciplines throughout the school year. National Secondary School Association has 4 regions in north, south, central and west and so therefore all these regions, the host school as well the regional executive will be able to benefit from this agreement."

"The agreement basically is lends to our beverages; all our drinks are fully sponsored by Bowen and Bowen in terms of what we give to the students and in terms of what we sell for fans. It's a big plus for us. If you look at the dollar value it totally amounts close to $20,000 for the year."

"We are hoping that other entities will come onboard and see what we do at secondary schools because as I've always said that this is one of the truly national association although we are deal with students in a structured facility in terms of school, but yet you know that there is a lot of students using sports in order to forward their education which is a big plus for us."

The Association hopes that other companies would get onboard initiatives like this one that can benefit students and sports in Belize.

Channel 7

NSSSA now has Bowen & Bowen as its exclusive sponsor

The National Secondary Schools Sports Association, the governing body for high school athletics in Belize, has joined forces with Crystal Bottling Company after several unsuccessful attempts at forging a productive working relationship to improve sports across the country.� This afternoon, representatives from the Bowen and Bowen Group were present for the signing of an agreement with executives from the NSSSA (N-Triple S-A) for Crystal to be an exclusive sponsor of future national sporting events.� Deon Sutherland, who has been with the association since its inception, and Jason Solis, Crystals brand coordinator, explain their newfound partnership.

Deon Sutherland, Representative, N.S.S.S.A.

"For us this is very important because this is something, in terms of this agreement, it's almost about eight months we're working on this agreement but looking through the archives of NSSSA we've seen that NSSSA and Bowen and Bowen have been trying to broker agreements for about twenty years now and none of them have come to fruition.� So as minor as this one is, in terms of what the others were asking for, I believe that this is a big step forward."

Jason Solis

Jason Solis, Brand Coordinator, Crystal Bottling Company

"This is something that Crystal has long been wanting to do because we stand firmly behind promoting a healthy lifestyle and giving back to communities.� So it seemed like something that was destined for us to sponsor the National Secondary Schools Sports Association and give back to the kids and have them strike that balance between sports and education and helping them do that.� So it's a wonderful sponsorship.� It covers all the disciplines from basketball to track and field for the length of the school year and so we will be giving assistance in terms of hydration and transportation, security, media and stuff along that route.� And, in terms of the overall value of the sponsorship, it will be covering about fifteen thousand dollars."

Deon Sutherland

Deon Sutherland

"For the past twenty-eight years NSSSA has been doing this on their own in terms of just the member schools and we have had much success but, you know, as things get more expensive and harder you see whereby we need some corporate assistance.� So this is really a good effort because it kind of takes a lot off the schools in terms of having to provide for example the regional tournaments and it helps NSSSA because we could spend in terms, we could put monies saved into training and workshops for our people.� So in terms of it helps both the member schools and NSSSA as an association."

Sponsorship covers the four major annual secondary school sporting events in the sum of approximately sixteen thousand dollars.

Channel 5