By Neto Baptiste
National triple and long jumper Taeco O’Garro said going pro is not at the top of his to-do list after leaving the Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2022.
The athlete, who won silver at the just concluded NACAC Under-23 Championships held in Costa Rica, made the disclosure while speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show.
“I think every athlete has a dream of going pro, but that’s never to be the end goal because any chance you get to pursue your degree while doing the sport you love, you take that chance and at the end of the day, if the sport does not work out, you get that degree so that you can go and pursue your career. I am studying sports administration and digital marketing, so the plan after school is to get into that field and if I go pro at the same time, then so be it. The top priority is never to go pro because it’s student athlete, not athlete student,” he said.
The athlete, who is also known for his involvement in the soca industry, believes that should he attempt to go pro, he already has all the right people around him that would ensure he gets into the right environment.
“If you look at most of the pro athletes we have, or most of the big [popular] athletes we have, they don’t train here. It’s not a case where they don’t want to train with their coaches [local] or that it’s better elsewhere, but it’s just that it’s easier to do that because when you are away from home, you get to focus more and you’ll have less distractions when you think of it that way,” he said.
O’Garro narrowly missed out on a medal in the long jump after he finished fourth with a distance of 7.01 meters.