New Sports Director Wants to Upgrade Sports in All Sectors

Iris Centeno

She is the new Sports Director, having taken over in that capacity on June sixteenth. Iris Centeno, who is known for her hands-on contributions to football, is now in charge of advancing the various sports disciplines promoted by National Sports Council. Her priority list is ambitious, but Centeno explained to us today that she intends to advance the quality and level of sports by engaging the business community and training athletes who need it.

Iris Centeno, Director, National Sports Council

“I’ve been able to live the challenges myself as an athlete, so there are certain goals that I do have, and I believe that with my team, I will be able to accomplish it. For example, I believe that it’s important for us to prepare our staff capacity building is very important and I will give priority to get our staff trained in the different areas. As well, as a director as the head of sports, we need to be able to have a great relationship with the association and Federation. So I believe that we have to create a very strong partnership, be able to support them to assist as well in the development of the athletes in the country. I want to be able to work with our team to upgrade our facilities, be able to continue to maintain our facilities, and that’s another goal. I think that we need to reinforce the marketing area, communication area, start to promote our athletes more. There are so much things happening with different athletes in the many sports or in the many disciplines. And sometimes we seem to just keep them out of the spotlight. So I think it’s important as well to emphasize on the marketing, the communication and the promotion of all of our athletes. In this way, um, we will start to build as well the image of the National Sports Council, and the business community will be attracted to us, and that they will want to work along with us for us to continue to promote our, our athletes in the country. If we continue to depend, then the monies will never be enough. And if we don’t try to change the image of the National Sports Council, the business community will not get attracted to want to partner with us. But if we prove them wrong that things are going to be different, I know that a lot of businesses will come and try to partner with us. We’ll try to find different ideas to generate monies and keep the organization going for me taking away an opportunity from an athlete just because we don’t have the money, it’s a no-no.”