Coaches slam organizers of Primary Schools’ Netball Festival

Coaches of the two finalists which contested last Friday’s final of the Primary Schools’ Netball Festival were blunt with their assessment of the organization of the final.{{more}}

The final, which featured the Buccament Government and the Fancy Government schools was played at the Kingstown Netball Centre, but not without several hiccups.

One of administrative blockages was the late start of the match, occasioned by the closure of the facility and by the absence of poles of the required height.

“Coming here and to be locked out of the compound, is totally unacceptable … We got here on time for an 11 o’ clock start,” a disappointed Charles Stay of the Fancy Government told SEARCHLIGHT.

Stay revealed that his team left the most northern community very early, in order to combat the logistics, as it was Friday, which coincided with the busy month-end happenings.

Nekeisha St Hillaire, also of Fancy Government, expressed similar views to SEARCHLIGHT.

“It is disgusting… It is supposed to be a happy day for us, but right now, it is not so…. Some of the students got up as early as five this morning to catch the transport from Fancy to get to Kingstown.”

Their concerns were compounded, because although there were the match officials from the Division of Physical Education and Sports present, there was no point person.

Attempts were made to have the players transported to the Arnos Vale Netball Complex, but this proved a logistical challenge, as both schools had brought contingents of supporting students, parents and other well-wishers.

Another suggestion was that the match go on with the regular poles used by adults; however, this was objected to by the coaches, who claimed that their players were already accustomed to the height of the poles prescribed for them.

After several telephone calls back and forth with the Education Officer responsibility for Physical Education and Sports Rosmund Griffith, the matter was resolved with the correct poles eventually getting to the Kingstown Netball Centre.

Meanwhile, Santa Cruickshank of the Buccament Primary lamented the fact that the students had to be away from school on three days, which, according to her, was “a loss of instructional time ahead of their end of term exams.”

She also questioned why the format had been changed from the preferred festival type, where the eight finalists would have converged at a single venue and played to determine the champion, as was done in 2013 and 2014.

Cruickshank said she was happy with the one day for the preliminary matches and the day for the final.

This year, organizers, after hosting the zonal preliminaries, went into the semi-finals and a day for the lone final match.

Apart from a return to the previous format, Cruickshank is calling for a reconfiguration in the ministerial portfolios, where the “Ministry of Education and Sports” is one entity.

The current schools’ sports set-up is run by the Ministry of Education, with the Division of Physical Education and Sports, the providers of technical support and the various national sports associations, the chair of the organizing sub-committee for each discipline.(RT)