In cricket, he has represented Montserrat at every level of youth cricket: under-13, under-15, under-17 and under-19. Last summer, the Leeward Islands Youth Cricket Tournament was held in Montserrat. Stevel, a middle order batsman and spin bowler, excelled and was selected to the under-19 Leeward Islands team. That squad competed in the West Indies under-19 tournament in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, but Stevel was limited by a back injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stevel, who grew up in Judy Piece,\nfirst became interested in cricket while in primary school. His first idol was\nLionel Baker, the former fast bowler who is the only cricketer from Montserrat to\nplay in a Test match for the West Indies team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI use to see him running through our\nvillage and that inspired me,\u201d said Stevel, who says Baker is one of his\nmentors today. \u201cWe sit down and talk and he tells me what I have to do to reach\nthe next level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As far as calypso, Stevel made his debut in 2011 during the Junior Calypso competition held annually as part of St. Patrick\u2019s week. He entered again in 2012 and 2013, then made the leap to the senior calypso show in 2014 at age 14 (he\u2019s believed to be the youngest entrant ever). He reached the semifinals that year and also competed in the Soca Monarch show. In 2015 he reached the calypso finals and finished eighth. He skipped 2016 and 2017, then returned in 2018, finishing eighth again in the finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat I really like about calypso is\nthe fact that I can give my opinion about things happening around me,\u201d says\nStevel, who often tells his writers the topic he\u2019d like to sing about. \u201cCalypso\nreally helps build your confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/stevelfamily.jpg\")
and mom Ausdelle Johnson<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Stevel, who graduated from the\nMontserrat Secondary School in 2017 and now works as a clerical officer at Inland\nRevenue, is not afraid to step on toes. One of his songs from this past\nfestival, The<\/em> Life of a T.C.<\/em>, details some incidents that have occurred within the\ngovernment that Stevel deems to be unfair. Stevel won two ancillary awards\nduring the 2018 calypso finals: Most Improved, and the William \u201cRuler\u201d Murrain\nCrowd Favorite, which is determined by crowd applause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cecil \u201cCepeke\u201d Lake, leader of the Black Rhythms band that plays for the calypso competition, has written calypso songs for Stevel over the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s a very brave kid,\u201d Lake says. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t surprise me if he wins the crown one day. I also admire his desire to contribute to the development of Montserrat, whether in calypso or cricket. I wish more young people were like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stevel\u2019s foray into the calypso genre is not surprising. He comes from a family of performers, especially in calypso. His grandmother, Rosalie \u201cTanty\u201d Johnson, sang calypso and soca during the 1980s. His grand uncles Owen \u201cDrago\u201d Johnson and Roland \u201cKenzie\u201d Johnson\u201d are etched in Montserrat Festival history \u2013 Drago as a former Road March champion and Kenzie as a three-time calypso monarch. Stevel’s cousin, In the 2000s, Stevel\u2019s mom, Ausdelle Johnson, competed in the main Calypso and Female Calypso competitions and also during the Police and Fire Week calypso competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI saw the potential in him for the calypso very early,\u201d Ausdelle says of Stevel. \u201cOne year I competed in the Police calypso show. Stevel was about 2 years old at the time. After I won, he came on stage, took the mic and started singing the song I had just won with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So Stevel’s entrance into the calypso arena was almost a rite of passage. However, if he were forced to pick calypso or cricket, he would definitely choose cricket. \u201cMy next goal is to make the West Indies under-19 team,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are definitely some things I need to improve like my strength. I also need to consolidate my innings when I\u2019m batting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stevel, who has had a serious growth spurt in recent years and now stands 6-foot-3, also played basketball with the Montserrat Secondary School Warriors while in school and competed in local tournaments. He played small forward, point guard and shooting guard. By the way, he also excels at table tennis and soccer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ausdelle knows Stevel is ambitious and determined, and she\u2019s proud of what he has accomplished. But one of her challenges has been getting him to temper his expectations. \u201cHe likes to win, and if he doesn\u2019t win he will keep going until he wins,” Ausdelle says. “But I told him that sometimes it\u2019s just not your time yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can’t blame Stevel though. With his talents it’s fair to say he’s ahead <\/em>of his time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The term \u201ccalypso cricket\u201d has long been used to describe the exciting form of the game that is played in the Caribbean. It\u2019s an entertaining, aggressive approach that catapulted the likes of Garry Sobers, Viv Richards, Brian Lara and even Montserrat\u2019s Jim Allen to international stardom. For Stevel Rodney, \u201ccalypso cricket\u201d takes on more of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,84,8,5,85],"tags":[52,25,46,81,26,83,59,80,82],"class_list":["post-596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-inthespotlight","category-news","category-sports","category-top5","tag-calypso","tag-cricket","tag-festival","tag-lionel-baker","tag-montserrat","tag-scrappy","tag-soca","tag-stevel-rodney","tag-west-indies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1398,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions\/1398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Garvin \u201cScrappy\u201d Johnson, is a multiple Soca Monarch and Road March winner in Montserrat and is an international performing artist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/steveltable.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n