The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association is back and will begin with the return of its High School Track and Field Championships.

But instead of having it spread over three to four days as it was done prior to 2020, the meet has been reduced to one day on Saturday at Thomas A Robinson National Stadium with competition in all events being staged for the junior and senior high schools combined.

GSSSA president Varel Davis thanked Mario Bowleg, the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture and the Ministry of Education and its staff for allowing them to restart the inter-school competition in the midst of the pandemic.

“It’s with great pleasure to say that the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association after-school programme is back,” Davis stated. “It’s been a long time. I’ve been praying that we finally get back.

“Everywhere I go, students have been asking me when are we going to have after-school sports because ‘I can’t wait.’ It’s a one-day meet, but I can tell you this, the parents are excited, the kids are excited and the teachers are excited and so we can’t wait until Saturday to showcase what the government schools have to offer.”

Meet director Fritz Grant said there will be a total of seven schools from both the junior and senior high schools competing and all of the rules from World Athletics will be adhered to as it pertains to the level of competition.

He also noted that all of the COVID-19 rules will be implemented to ensure that they have a safe and productive meet once they begin competition at 9am. Athletes will have the opportunity to use the old Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium to warm up.

Grant, however, said there will not be any overall champions because of the fact that all of the schools are not yet back to full face-to-face learning in the classrooms, but medals will be presented to the first three finishers in every event.

Without the inter-house competition that is normally used to determine their teams, Grant said a lot of the schools will be relying on the performances of their athletes from their participation in the club meets held so far on the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ calendar of events.

Dwayne Higgins, the acting assistant director with responsibility for student development in the Ministry of Education, said everybody knows the value of sports in nation-building and with the Bahamas being dubbed a “sports power”, it’s only fitting that the Ministry throws its support behind the GSSSA and their sporting programme.

“So this year, even with the challenges of COVID- 19 and moving towards a more normal condition, this is one of those first steps we want to take,” Higgins said.

“As a representative for the Ministry of Education, this is one of the goals and we want to take sports into a developmental way so the student-athletes can develop themselves.”

Having worked with the Principals Association, the GSSSA and the students, Higgins said the ministry is looking forward to normalcy and the one day track and field meet to begin branding the schools and students on the idea of building characters through sports.

Hopefully, Higgins said a number of athletes from their schools will end up qualifying for the return of the CARIFTA Games in Kingston, Jamaica, over Easter holiday weekend.

Dr Virginia Romer, the president of the New Providence Association of Principals Public Secondary Schools, said as the governing body for the GSSSA, they are excited about the resumption of sports within their schools.

“It’s been more than 18 months that our students have participated and in the education of our students, our goal is to address not only the intellectual aspects of our students, but also the physical,” she said.

“Unfortunately, the pandemic had a major effect on the physical and wholeness of education. This weekend, our students and coaches are excited and looking forward to this event.

“We felt it is important to have this event, especially how this year is CARIFTA and we want to have the best of our athletes to have a fair opportunity to make the CARIFTA team,” she added.

While this is just the beginning of the return of sports in schools, Romer said they are looking forward to whatever events are staged during the rest of the school year, but more importantly next year when everything is expected to be back to normal.

Mike Sands, the president of the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC), said on behalf of track and field and sports in general, young people need so much positive things to be happening in their lives and he’s happy to see that the GSSSA is getting back on track.

Referring to a quote from Nelson Mandela, who said “sports has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire people. It has the power to unite people. It speaks to the language that they understand,” Sands congratulated the administrators and the authorities for having the vision to see that the Bahamas now needs to be moving into that direction.

As a labour of love, Sands encouraged the administrators and coaches to continue to move into the direction that they are heading into as they continue to provide avenues for the young people to excel in sports.

He noted that the GSSSA meet comes in an opportune time as it provides an avenue for athletes to prepare for the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ final trials over the weekend of April 1-2 and he noted that the coaches will be compiling the results of the other participating countries to see where the Bahamas fits into the equation.

With the games being in their backyard, Sands said Jamaica will be ready, so much so that they have issued a challenge for the Bahamas in a “battle of the bands” competition with the reggae music compared to junkanoo.

“It’s going to be an exciting time,” Sands said. “So I’m hoping that our athletes make the qualifying standards.”

At the GSSSA meet, Sands said for the first time the new format for the mixed relays will be contested where World Athletics has now made it standard with every competition contested in a specific order with a boy leading off, handing off to a girl to a boy to a girl anchoring.

Quenton Brennen, the general manager of the National Sports Authority, said after a two-year hiatus, they are looking forward to hosting the GSSSA in their one-day meet and hopefully it will provide some great competition across the board with more athletes making the CARIFTA team in addition to the private schools.

Davis said once the meet is finished, the GSSSA will be looking at staging soccer competitions for boys and girls.

And hopefully softball for girls and baseball for boys before the end of the school year.

She added they will go back to their full sporting calendar of events starting in the new school year in September.