Pros of student athlete recruitment - Students, parents want ideal schools

Peter Brooks, Guest Columnist

A week ago, I attempted to bring some balance to the debate concerning recruitment in high-school sports, and particularly, what happens at St George's College, as it seems that this institution has been targeted as the demagogue of 'that evil practice' since its most recent dominance of high-school football in 2008.

Inequity in the school system is the overwhelming reason why kids want to transfer from one school to another. Every June, traditional high schools are inundated by parents wanting to transfer their children from some upgraded high school where their child was placed based on his or her GSAT results. Those parents want to send their kids to what they deem a 'better' school.

By the end of summer, the process is duplicated by the fifth-formers, on receipt of their CSEC grades. Most will try to get into a sixth form they think is 'better' than that of the school they are coming from, if indeed that school even has a sixth form.

Why should a student athlete not have the same ambition to go to a school he or she perceives 'better' suited for his purposes? If every school had top-class teachers, laboratories and other infrastructure, no one would want to move their children to another school. By extension, if every school had top-class fields, courts, coaches and abilities to secure scholarships, student athletes would not see the need to move from one institution to another.

The harsh realities of our struggling, Third World country is that there are vast chasms between the qualities of the facilities, teachers and coaches among institutions. Unfortunately, this situation is likely to exist for a very long time.

While we await our political leaders, whose wonderful track record for efficiency and management has been on display for the past 50 years, to get all schools equal, what should be the fate of the talented student footballer who is placed at a secondary school that has a terrible, if any, football programme?

The world has evolved. Professional sport is now a viable career choice. Although I was fortunate enough to graduate from the University of Miami, I won't make the money in my entire lifetime that Ricardo 'Bibi' Gardner has already made at 34, after leaving Wolmer's Boys at 18 and signing with Bolton Wanderers. Most of our student athletes will not be as fortunate as Bibi and will require, like me, a good education in order to survive in life.

need to be nurtured

Academics and sport, however, need not be mutually exclusive, but athletic talent, like academic talent, will need to be nurtured in environments conducive to doing so. Until more of those environments exist, students gifted with athletic abilities will continue to seek out those environments that will give them the best chances for success.

One myth being promulgated is that all, or most, transferred students are put in schools they are not qualified for, and can't cope there, and are thus doomed for failure. I have witnessed, first hand, at St George's, the fallacy of this argument. My son, rightly or wrongly, was placed at an all-age school on the basis of his GSAT results. I, like the parents I referred to above, rightly or wrongly, managed to have my son transferred to my alma mater. After initial struggles, he went on to be very successful in CSEC and CAPE and matriculated to the University of the West Indies. That, I believe, is what we call education.

As I understand it, the sports programme at St George's has no influence on whether or not a student may be accepted into the school, and it is only after deeming the applicant academically qualified to handle the work at the school that the administration accepts a student.

As it relates to StGC's football transfers, it is of note that in the last five years, four St George's College footballers were not able to finish their careers at the school because of academic ineligibility. Only one of those did not start at the school in first form. Of those ineligible, one was still able to secure a football scholarship to a junior college in the United States, even though he was not able to meet the high requirements to matriculate into sixth form at St George's.

Academic upswing

It is also noteworthy that St George's' dominance in football coincides with its CSEC and CAPE percentage passes averaging in the mid-80s and 90s respectively, the highest for the school in several years. Incidentally, the team that represented the school in the 2012 Manning Cup final featured eight sixth-formers, four of whom started first form at other schools. All but one matriculated from fifth form to sixth after coming to St George's.

Put all this with the fact that every transfer student (along with several who started in first form) who has started on the school's football team in the last five years, excepting the aforementioned individual, has left St George's College with a football scholarship to a tertiary institution. That should be testimony that excellence in sport and academics are not mutually exclusive.

The other myth that needs to be dispelled is that student athlete transferees represent 'big' traditional high schools preying on the 'little' non-traditional or upgraded high schools. In the past five years, there have been as many student athletes moving from traditional high schools as there have been non-traditional ones.

In 2012, more non-traditional high schools made the second round of the Manning Cup for the first time than ever before. This signals that more schools are joining the party, thus providing more options for our student athletes, and may just be bringing us a few steps closer to making the recruitment discussion redundant.

a matter of choice

Finally, I would like to address the question of choice. If a student breaks certain rules of a school, the administrators have the option to expel him. What right does the student have in determining whether a school is right for him or her after enrolment? If a student and his or her parents feel that they have made a poor choice after enrolling in a school, do they have the right to change their minds? If they feel the teachers are victimising the child, or they are not happy with the quality of the tuition, do they have the right of buyer's remorse?

When one clears away the myths and examines the facts, and puts those facts in the context of the systemic problems in our education system, that creates the desire for one to seek out a better institution than the one currently being attended.

Balance all that with the intrinsic right of every individual to choice, one has to ask, how can you prevent an individual from seeking better for himself or herself, when you cannot provide an acceptable alternative? That has got to be morally wrong.

Until the school system can be made equitable for all, recruiting is a means of saving young lives by giving them an opportunity that they would not otherwise have had.

Peter Brooks is a businessman and manager of the St George's College track team. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and sakutso@hotmail.com.