ISSA president happy with season’s successes

INTER-SECONDARY SCHOOLS Sports Association (ISSA) president, Keith Wellington, looking back at the end of not just a successful season, but also at the end of schoolgirls’ netball on Friday, is a happy man.

Wellington’s pleasure comes from seeing a full return to competitive sports for high school sports.

“We at ISSA are very happy to have back sports as it was pre-COVID pandemic. We would have several competitions concluded, which included under-14, 16 and senior football, under-16 and under-19 basketball, and under-16 and under-19 netball and things really went well without any major hiccups,” said Wellington.

Wellington admitted that at the start of the schoolboy season there were a few problems.

“The bad thing about COVID is that it limited the opportunity for interaction among people and this affected the younger generation, who would not have yet developed certain social practices and we would have noticed that in schools and in the classrooms, you had more fights and disagreements and they were less able to resolve conflicts.

“When we started football in September, you could see that happening on the field of play, the way players reacted to foul offences and we had too many red cards. But as the competition continued, we saw significant improvement. And that, I am really pleased about as this is the aim of ISSA, to help students to socialise and to create friendships and not animosity and it is not to win at all cost and I think we have achieved our objectives here. I am proud that we were able to see the improvement over time.”

Wellington is looking forward to competition in the next semester.

“Next term the big thing is track and field where there will be meets every weekend and there is also cricket and girls’ football,” he said.

“For girls’ football, we are excited as it is a World Cup year and Jamaica will be participating in its second World Cup back to back and I think this is an opportunity for us to build on our female programme as it is also the 25th year of high school girls’ football in Jamaica. We want to focus on the opportunity we are putting out to our female footballers as we want them to get the same highlights and leverage given to the boys.”