A commission of technicians of the highest sports level is transmitting their knowledge in different areas for the development and success of the X School Sports Games 2023, to be held from November 7 to 17 with Barahona as the main venue and the provinces of Azua, Bahoruco and San Juan as subsites.
Figures and personalities of national and international sport of the stature of Nelson José Ramírez, Tony Mesa, Eddy González, Pedro Zamora, Manuel de Jesús and Luis de la Portilla fill with prestige the technical part of the X School Games Barahona 2023, whose assembly and organization is the responsibility of the National Institute of Physical Education (Inefi), governing body of school sports in the Dominican Republic, directed by Alberto Rodríguez Mella.
Eddy González
Deputy technical director of the National Institute of Physical Education (INEFI) in the current administration of Alberto Rodríguez, who has been a fundamental part in the assembly of important recreational and sports programs such as the Minerd-Inefi 2023 Summer Camp, among others.
González has worked on the technical side and as a member of the organizing committee of important sports events such as the Norceca Volleyball Cup, Dominican Volleyball League and Dominican Volleyball Federation tournaments. He is currently part of the Technical Commission and the Follow-up Commission for the X Barahona 2023 School Sports Games.
Nelson José Rodríguez
Veteran technical professor with 30 years of experience linked to Olympism and sports in general. He has been part of the Executive Directorate of the Dominican Olympic Committee (COD), where he has held different functions.
Currently, Professor Ramirez is the director of the Norceca Volleyball Development Center and executive of the Dominican Volleyball Federation. He has been technical director of most of the international tournaments held in the country by institutions such as the International Volleyball Federation and Norceca, as well as different national events related to this sport discipline.
Given his technical capacity and preparation in various areas of the sport, Professor Ramirez has also been a member of the organizing committee of other important competitions in the country such as the Superior Basketball Tournaments of the National District and Santiago. His experience in the technical direction of the National Sports Games also stands out.
Professor Ramirez was appointed as mission chief of the XVIII Bolivarian Games, which were held in the city of Santa Marta, Colombia, from November 11 to 25, 2017.
Bernardo Antonio Mesa
Known in the national sports scene as Tony Mesa, he has a degree in Education and a major in Biology from the Instituto Superior Pedagógico Rafael María de Mendive, in Puerto Rico. He also has a degree in Physical Culture and Sports from the Higher Institute of Physical Culture and Sports in his native Cuba.
He is currently a member of the faculty of the Instituto Superior de Formación Docente Salomé Ureña (Isfodosu), since 2002 to date, and for more than 15 years at the state-owned Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD).
Professor Mesa has been technical director of the Dominican Olympic Committee (COD) and general and technical director of the Ministry of Sports and Recreation (Miderec), the two most important entities in the country in this field.
His work influenced the achievements of Dominican taekwondo in the 90’s, with 8 medals in the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games, two world medals (gold in 1996 and bronze in 1999), 14 medals in regional championships (1997) and three medals in the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada.
His resume also includes his appointment as technical director of the High Performance Athletes Program (Parni), during the administration of Felipe (Jay) Payano, former Secretary of Sports.
Mesa began his admiration for sports, especially judo and karate, which he practiced systematically and obtained a black belt. He has been a trainer in almost all combat disciplines such as those already mentioned, as well as in taekwondo.
Professor Mesa has also worked as coordinator of the Physical Preparation and Rehabilitation area in the baseball academy of the New York Yankees, which has its headquarters in the municipality of Boca Chica, Santo Domingo province.
Pedro Zamora
Director of School Sports at INEFI, who has been living in the Dominican Republic for more than 10 years, where he has provided his expertise in the main sporting events held in the country in recent years.
Zamora has a degree in Physical Culture and graduated from the School of Physical Education of Cuba. He was technical coordinator of the Santo Domingo sub-headquarters of the Central American and Caribbean Games San Salvador 2023.
This sports professor also served as deputy technical director of the Ministry of Sports from 2012 to 2020.
Manuel de Jesús
In charge of Statistics, Results and Inscriptions of the Barahona 2023 School Sports Games and currently, he holds the position of director of Statistics of the Ministry of Sports in its Technical Directorate.
In addition, he is a member of the Pan American Skating Confederation and was also the director of Statistics and Results of the past National Games Hermanas Mirabal 2018 held in the municipality Salcedo and with those same functions, in the Santo Domingo East Sports Games 2021.
Luis de la Portilla
Professor Luis de la Portilla is a former president of the Cuban Wrestling Federation with extensive experience in the technical and operational areas in different sports competitions.
Currently, Portilla is the technical coordinator of the Technical Directorate and will be directing everything related to the operational part of the Barahona 2023 School Games.
Participating disciplines
A total of 3,645 students will compete in the 18 sports disciplines that will participate in the X School Games.
The host province, Barahona, will receive athletes who will see action in athletics, adapted athletics, chess, basketball, 3×3 basketball, baseball, soccer and gymnastics.
The San Juan de la Maguana sub-site will be competing in handball, judo, karate, taekwondo and table tennis.
In Azua, there will be indoor soccer, boxing and softball, while Bahoruco will see action in badminton and volleyball.
Source: presidencia.gov.do
