The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

ONE of the longest tenures in high school sports came to an end as Reginald ‘Reggie’ Forbes retired from St Augustine’s College last week.

Although his official job was the Dean of Student Affairs, which many felt he performed admirably, Forbes also served in the Athletic Department as a member of the Big Red Machine coaching staff where he was fiercely competitive on the sidelines with his teams.

He brought a lot of that enthusiasm as a former all-around athlete, who played just about every sport during his heyday as a student of arch-rival Aquinas College and later excelled as a veteran on the men’s national basketball team and a star power forward on the famed Beck’s Cougars basketball club.

Prior to joining SAC in 1987, Forbes previously served as a member of staff at the Ministry of Education, posted first at the CC Sweeting in the Physical Education Department along with former Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt, the late Leonard ‘Boston Blackie’ Miller, Julie Wilson, Fred Wright and Rupert Gardiner and then the RM Bailey with the late Charles ‘Chuck’ Mackey in the PE Department.

As a 1976 graduate of Aquinas College, Forbes returned home from college where he got his first coaching gig at his alma mater from 1980-84. He was fresh out of his sting at St Gregory’s College and the University of Science and Arts in Oklahoma.

But before he went to the Ministry of Education, he worked briefly at the Caribbean Bottling Company in their Quality Control Division under the supervision of Judy Munroe and Nat Adams.

The rest, as they say, was history. “When I saw the ad in the newspaper for the Dean of St Augustine’s College, I applied and was invited by the late Leviticus ‘Uncle Lou’ Adderley to come in for an interview,” Forbes recalled. “I guess I impressed him. As a result of the interview, I was hired by the college and that began my tenure here at St Augustine’s.”

At one point during his tenure at SAC, Forbes said both the Progressive Liberal Party and the Free National Movement entertained him in talks about becoming the Director of Sports in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, but nothing materialised.

“I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I guess the timing wasn’t suitable for either party or government,” he lamented.

Despite the promises of being given the job at the Ministry, Forbes said he remained content with the 34 years he laboured at SAC where he had the opportunity to grow as a person, an administrator, a parent and as a coach.

“I believe I offered a whole lot of the skills that I possessed,” he said. “Particularly in the area of sports, I didn’t get to expand because of the greater responsibility that I had as an administrator and the director of the sporting programme here at SAC.

“At SAC, we have a very unique group of teachers, staff, students and alumnis. I don’t believe you could find and if someone can, maybe they can point me in that direction, of a unified group of people who are excited about being the best they could be. I learnt that and I watched that manifest itself in so many different forms.”

Unlike he did in his debut at Aquinas College coaching track and field, volleyball, softball, basketball and any other sport, Forbes said he was able to be a part of a diverse coaching staff that had the ability to share the responsibilities among each other.

“I did some coaching here at SAC. Normally, I was the sitting guy. When we didn’t have a person for any grouping of students in a particular discipline, I was always called upon to assist and I was always more than willing to do so,” he stated.

During his tenure, Forbes said he got to watch so many athletes grow from their entry into SAC as a 7th grader, not just from the private or Catholic schools, but from the independent and government schools “in the hopes to be the best” as they became “a part of a family” until they departed.

If there was any disappointment or low, Forbes said it would have been the falling off of the parental interaction, but that was not to say that he didn’t come into contact with “parents who truly cared about the school and their child/children’s success.”

Through all of his interactions, Forbes said he demonstrated one common trend and that was to “love all of his students, just as he did for his immediate family” and he treated them just as he did his “children or grandchildren”

“There were times when you had to correct children, but in doing that, you did it in a cheering way and a way that you did not align or break the spirit of the child. Your interaction had to show that you wanted the best for him or her. So I had an awesome 34 years here at SAC.”

The only way one could envision what he was talking about was actually being a part of the wholistic system that was proved at SAC.

Now that he’s officially retired at age 65, Forbes said he will continue to engage in assisting young people in the development of their skills whether it’s here in the Bahamas or overseas. He declined to preempt any plans on the drawing board at this time, but noted that it will be something that will enable him to grow a lot more and to support the development in assisting more students than he’s ever done in the past.

He thanked his wife, Pachley, whom he got married to in 1984 and their four children, Dr Petra Forbes, Alexandria Demeritte, Reginald (in Canada) and Jonathan (in Oklahoma) and his grandson Tyler Demeritte, for their tremendous support over the years.

However, he expressed his gratitude to Uncle Lou Adderley for granting him the opportunity to work with him until his demise. His daughter, Daria, is now a member of the PE Department at SAC as she continues the legacy.

“He took me on, as he would have done with any other young male as principal and coach,” Forbes said. “He was a mentor, who I respected greatly as a male leader in our country. Many times, he was not understood, but his plight towards making St Augustine’s Community what it is today is beyond admirable.

“He was a fine young man, who went too early in the prime of his life. I will continue working towards his legacy and refining some of the things that he felt near and dear to his heart and that was to affirm young men as the pillars of our community.”

The latter years at SAC, Forbes worked closely with Sonja Knowles, a former mathematics teacher who was eventually promoted under Adderley as vice principal before she was elevated to principal. But like Forbes, Knowles will be retiring at the end of the year.

Forbes was known as a no-nonsense Dean of Students and coach at SAC, but he said he developed a lot of that as a versatile student-athlete, who played every sport except swimming (although he could swim), under coach Jerry Harper and a musician and actor, thanks to the training he got from deceased principal Andrew Curry.

But the 34 years he spent as a member of the Big Red Machine sporting programme is one that he claims he will cherish for the rest of his life.