Lascelve Graham | Psychological pitfalls for sports recruits

In a TVJ Sports exposé September 25-26 delivered by sports reporter Jordan Forte, psychologist Olivia Rose and Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon-Harrison revealed some of the formidable psychological hurdles, pressures, faced by sports recruits at school level. The victims and their parents are afraid to complain, the programme disclosed. They suffer in silence. I have been told by others that it has gone as far as students being suicidal!

The many ills, and negative obvious and unintended consequences associated with the win-at-all costs approach to sports by our schools, have been pointed out ad nauseam. This approach leads to the recruiting of sports talent by schools. The psychological negatives mentioned by the ladies above just add to the stack of abuse to which our children are exposed. Of course, pointing these out always seems to fall on the deaf ears of the Ministry of Education and ISSA, the two bodies that are supposed to right these wrongs as they continue undeterred along their merry way.

The programme also showed coaches of poorer schools lamenting the constant robbing of their students with sports talent, who they discovered and nurtured to prominence. It was disclosed that Antonio Watson, who did so brilliantly in the World Games with a fantastic win in the 400 metres race, was bombarded with offers from older, richer, more endowed schools to leave Petersfield and change allegiance to these institutions in Kingston. Had he relented, had he succumbed, this would have unfairly robbed the coaches, Petersfield High, and the community of their well-deserved moment in the sun, their association with glory and excellence, their satisfaction of knowing not only that they could, but that they had, guided one of their own to the pinnacle of success! What a confidence builder for all in the community.

LIE

Imagine if Watson had left Petersfield for a bigger school, with better facilities and supposedly better coaches, greener pastures in Kingston, they would have got the glory, taken credit for his success, and rained on what should have been Petersfield’s parade. It would not have helped Petersfield and would have perpetuated the myth that sports success can only come by way of the richer schools. It’s a lie!

Taking sports talent from the smaller, poorer schools is not in the best interests of the children of the school, the school, our education/socialisation system, or Jamaica’s society. This win-at-all costs approach to sports by our schools and the resulting recruiting for sports purposes by schools weakens our smaller, poorer schools, makes our education/socialisation system less efficient and effective, exploits and then abandons poor people’s children as noted by the coaches in the TVJ programme.

Jamaica must ban recruiting for sports purposes by our schools!

We must refocus on the educational/socialisation mission of school and understand that the only chance we have of delivering quality education to all our children is by doing all we can to build up, strengthen our poorer, weaker schools, not to make them even weaker. Snatching, buying, taking away their sports talent is making them weaker!

There are so many ills associated with the overemphasis on winning at sports in schools. These have shown up over and over again throughout the years but have been swept under the carpet, covered up, overlooked by the powers that be.

I understand that there are school dormitories that are three-fourths full with sports recruits, while genuine, legitimate youngsters who need to board must find lodgings elsewhere. Schools with highly experienced, extremely competent and able sports administrators, one of whose principals was president of ISSA for many years, have been found to have breached the rules of eligibility, but instead of being ejected from the competition at least for the current year, which would send a clear message to all and sundry, they have been given a slap on the wrist and allowed to continue to enjoy the benefits of competition.

CO-OPTED SPORTS

Schools have co-opted sports academies in their desperate attempt to win. The win-at-all costs mentality has not only led to the robbing of sports stars from poorer Jamaican schools, but has given rise to the bringing in of foreign sports recruits to take the place of Jamaicans in schools while poor, deserving Jamaicans yearn for the opportunity. Students who have legitimately earned their places at a school, and who should be the target of all activities offered by the school, are crowded out by these sports recruits, both local and foreign.

Schools recruit in an attempt to win at all costs! Period! It has nothing to do with the welfare of our children. They are just collateral damage!

Recruiting for sports purposes by schools is so unprincipled, out of line with the spirit in which sports should be played in school (it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game), so totally out of sync with what the role of sports should be at the school level (educational/socialising, teaching/learning tool). Recruiting for sports purposes is such a cesspool of unethical behaviour that one is hard-pressed to fathom how our leaders in education, politics, and the Church can continue to turn a blind eye and deaf ears to this practice.

It is ironic that although sports recruiting was introduced to our schoolboy football by an Englishman, it doesn’t happen in England, which gave us the template of our education/socialisation system and has one of the most rabid and fanatical sports populations. I look at Finland and it’s not there, in fact, nowhere in Europe do I find it. It’s not in Singapore, and when South Korea was lifting itself from the bottom after the ravages of war, they didn’t even understand the concept of student-athlete, so fully focused were their leaders on educating, socialising and training their populace.

In Jamaica’s case, it seems the saying is apt, “we have met the enemy, and he is us”. The enemy is within!

Dr Lascelve “Muggy” Graham is a former captain of Manning, All-Manning, All-Schools and All-Jamaica football teams. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.