The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THEY were hoping to get in at least one sporting discipline, but the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association got the word on Wednesday that there will be no after-school activities this year.

The Ministry of Education’s Sports Division, headed by Evon Wisdom and Rupert Gardiner, met with the GSSSA executives to inform them that with students only just returning to the classrooms, it would be more advantageous for them to concentrate on their education.

“We got a directive from the Director of Education (Marcellus Taylor) saying there will be no sports this year,” said Gardiner, senior sports officer, who assists Wisdom. “The reason is simple, the students have been out of school for a whole year and so we want them to concentrate on their education. It don’t make sense having sports and the kids have not been training. Why would you want to put the kids in that environment to compete.”

With students just returning to school this month, Gardiner said it was obvious that there would not be sufficient time to prepare the students to compete with school closing in June.

Yesterday, some of the GSSSA executives, led by president Varel Davis, secretary Fiona Tucker and assistant treasurer Neketa Sears-Knowles, voiced their displeasure in the decision.

“A proposal was presented to the Ministry of Education for us to have sports in a safe environment,” Davis disclosed. “So to hear that we won’t have any sports at all this school year is disheartening.”

Davis, a physical education teacher at CH Reeves Junior High School, said they understand the rational behind the decision not to allow them to hold any sports, but she said they can only look at preparing for the new school year in September.

Hearing the news at the meeting, Sears-Knowles, who teaches at SC McPherson Junior High School, said they now find themselves at a disadvantage because they won’t have any activities. “We have a lot of student-athletes who find themselves with nothing to do after school and for those who are graduating this year and looking to snag that athletic scholarship, they are left with virtually no chance of achieving that goal,” she said.

“It’s a sad day for us in the GSSSA because we were hoping to at least put on our track and field meet because we know that the clubs in the BAAA are holding their track meets.”

And Tucker, a physical education teacher at DW Davis Junior High School, said she’s disappointed that they were not even given permission to stage one event - track and field - considering that the CARIFTA Games have been pushed back to August.

“We would have still had a chance for our government school kids to get in some competition to try and make the Carifta team,” Tucker said.

“It’s a sad day in the country for all government schools, all coaches and especially our athletes, who won’t get a chance to participate in any sports this year.”

Every day at school, Tucker said she’s bombarded with students trying to find out when they will get to participate in any type of sporting activity and she now have to tell them they have to wait until September.

CI Gibson’s senior boys and girls’ basketball head coach, Kevin ‘KJ’ Johnson, said there’s no reason why if they are playing sports in schools in America, that they can’t do it here in the Bahamas.

“Our next door neighbors, America, are having sports using the right protocol,” he stated. “I’m sure with the right protocols here, the GSSSA can do the same thing.”

As a result of the decline in sporting activities, Johnson said a lot of the young men are resorting to picking up the guns and knives to engage themselves in their idle time.

“The only way we can keep them busy is by having sports,” said Johnson, who also operates the Providence Basketball Club, who seek to help to get some of the high school players off to school in the United States and Canada.

“I am sure it could happen here in thed Bahamas, just as it is all around the world. Turn on the television and in America, there is sports going on right now.”

Johnson said they just need the right set of people making the decisions and not playing on the emotions of the children. They just have to follow the right protocol.

“Every day we go into the food store and the banks and other places wearing our masts, sanitizing and getting our temperature checked,” he stressed. “So why we can’t play sports.

“Why can’t we play soccer and baseball, softball and volleyball and track and field. Even if we don’t have any fans in the stands, we can still have sports.”

Gardiner, however, said that while the GSSSA is not having any sports, the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) is also not having any sporting activities this year.

So he said while the GSSSA feel as if their students are being placed ion a disadvantage, the BAISS is also going through the same ordeal, but they have accepted the he challenge they are faced with.