St George's looking up following Champs shock

When The Sunday Gleaner visited St George's College last Monday, a day after it was revealed that they would not be allowed to compete at this month's Inter-Secondary Schools' Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletics Champion-ships because they had missed the registration deadline, it was a scene of mass distress.

Student/athletes - the real victims in these situations, and a few members of the support cast, could be seen openly weeping, minutes after sports master Fernando Douglas tried to explain the circumstances that led to him failing to meet ISSA's March 4 registration deadline.

No one could speak to us at the time, and quite understandably so; after all, while this is a surprisingly common situation, this was the first time that the two-time champions were being affected.

Eight other schools; Morant Bay High, Garvey Maceo, Inswood, Norman Manley, Annotto Bay, Tarrant, Frome and Anchovy, also failed to meet the deadline and will also not feature at the March 30 - April 2 meet.

Signs of a recovery

When contacted recently, long-standing and highly-respected St George's College coach Vinton Powell, despite acknowledging the devastating effect the news initially had on his boys, assured that the team would bounce back from this setback and shared that there were already signs of a recovery.

Twenty-two members of the 32-strong track squad turned up for training on Thursday in high spirits, a welcome contrast to the disappointment and gloom that covered the North Street-based institution at the start of last week.

"The boys are now in high spirits, we are not going to make what happened dampen the vibe of the whole thing. We had the Guidance Counsellor come in to have a little talk with them the other day and that went well," said Powell, who is in line to receive a special award at the championships this year for his service to track and field.

"Initially they were shocked at what they heard, they were very emotional, some of them shed tears but a few days have passed and things are looking better," Powell added. "The sports master was there; he is very disappointed. We had a meeting last Monday with the boys and he was overwhelmed with emotions, just trying to tell them what happened and I do understand his situation.

"I don't want to talk to Douglas about it now because he is very overwhelmed with emotions so I don't want to add to the pressure that he is facing already, so we haven't really spoken about it," Powell noted.

It is a particularly painful situation for the likes of head boy and top high jumper Kemarki Absolom, sprinters Tremaine Barnett, Oraine Christie as well as Kenton Smith, who will not get a chance to run again at Champs, this being their final year in school. This naturally raises questions about the effect their non-participation will have on their scholarship opportunities.

"This is one meet that we would like to show them off, but on the other hand, they have been competing at the development meets and those who may have been eyed by any school would have already been spotted, so I don't think it will affect them too much," Powell reasoned before pointing out that the team will be competing at the upcoming All-Comers meet as well as the Penn Relays in the USA.

"We plan to compete at the All-Comers meet and we are also looking to go to the Penn Relays, so we will keep them busy. I believe by Monday (tomorrow) everybody will be back in training because we have plans for them," Powell added.

Negative impact

The coach also admitted that this disappointment may have a negative impact on the programme going forward, but was hopeful for the best. He also shared the team's overall expectations going into Champs.

"It (being barred from Champs) probably will affect the programme but I'm a very optimistic person and I don't think it will affect it too much. We have a nice bunch of boys and we are going to do what we must to keep the spirits strong," Powell noted.

Powell, who voiced support for ISSA president Dr Walton Small's call for an amendment to the deadline rule, then shared that members of the management team have been receiving emails of a mixed variety

"Dr Small has suggested that its probably time to change that rule so that the students aren't the ones that suffer because of an error on the part of an adult. it's a suggestion that can definitely be looked into, because it's difficult for something like this to cause the students to not be able to take part," Powell stated.