‘No secret just hard work’- Harry

Godfrey Harry, Coach and Physical Education teacher of the double-crown champions the Thomas Saunders Secondary School, has admitted that there is no hidden secret to his school’s success{{more}} at capturing both the Male and Female Divisions of the Inter Secondary Schools Athletics Championships, held last week Thursday, March, 31, at the Arnos Vale Playing Field.

An elated Harry told SEARCHLIGHT last Tuesday: “There is no secret, just simply hard work”.

“The other option you have other than hard work is cheating, which is doping, and that is out,” Harry quipped.

Harry added that as a coach, one has to be diligent to his/her task, when preparing athletes for competitions.

“We worked hard, and it paid off,” Harry said.

“The school has a lot of talent. It is just for you to harness that talent,” Harry claimed.

The Thomas Saunders Secondary, a five-and-a-half-year-old institution, retained the Male title, which they won for the first time in 2010, and added the Female title to their collection this time around.

The males accumulated 291 points, distancing their nearest rival, the Petit Bordel Secondary by 95.5 points, while the females compiled 190, 26.5 more than last year’s winner, the Bethel High School.

For Harry, it was the second time in the history of the annual secondary schools athletics exercise that he was in charge of the school that won both the male and female divisions.

It was under Harry’s coaching tutelage in 1992that the then Emmanuel High School Kingstown, now the Dr. JP Eustace Memorial Seconday, walked away with both championships.

But Harry is not taking all the credit for the Thomas Saunders Secondary’s continued success, and is heaping praise on his background staff.

“I could not have done it alone, with the support of the parents and guardians, the commitment of the athletes themselves, my assistants, the staff at the school, my wife Sylvorn, and the Principal, Mr. John Renton, who has been supportive of us all the way,” Harry said.

Harry, who is also a Netball Coach of three teams in the National Netball Club Championships, a netball umpire, and President of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Netball Association, said that having such support systems in place was a necessity for added accomplishment.

Harry, who was named the 2010 Coach of the Year, at the National Sports Awards held last month, is already charged up for next year’s event.

“I have already looked at those who will be available for next year, and recognize that some re-modelling will be done to the female team, and we are hoping that in September, that we will get some junior boys,” Harry revealed.

A confident Harry said that defence of the titles begins at the start of the new academic year, when he holds his first Physical Education lesson.