Headmasters say sport is a part of student development

Sport is a key part of student development. That’s the viewpoint shared by O’neil Ankle, principal of Jonathan Grant High School in Spanish Town and Orett Wallace, headmaster at Foga Road High School in May Pen. Both men are former high school and college track and field athletes themselves, and the experience gives them special insight into the role of sport in the school.

Speaking at the recent Carifta Trials, Ankle explained: “For me, it’s all part of the entire development of the students. I want my students to be part of track and field, part of any sport because of the opportunity that it brings to them, and if a student can benefit from the development of track and field, football, you name it, get a scholarship, go overseas, that is what I want for my students.

“So if they choose to get involved in track and field, if they choose to get involved in football or netball, whatever, at the end of the day, remember they are student-athletes, and so if they can derive the benefit of the sport and go on to either to become professionals, get a scholarship, and move into their chosen career, for me, that is what I want for all the students that I would have encountered,” Ankle underlined.

Ankle, a former Kingston College and G.C. Foster College horizontal jumper and Wallace, a Manchester High School sprinter, were later teammates at New York Tech. Wallace draws on his own journey when he manages school affairs at Foga Road. “I look back at myself and what I had derived from track and field and I try to instil the same thing into my teachers,” he said. “As Mr Ankle rightly said, it’s a holistic development for all athletes. So I put programmes in place so that the students will benefit from sporting activities and develop their future with the academic prowess that they have.”

According to Wallace, Foga Road supports student-athletes as best the school can. “We have programmes in place, after-school programmes, where teachers will volunteer their service to students to help them achieve the academic standards set out by the sporting organisations which they enter here,” he said.