TSSS trio setting pace in education, sports

Physical Education teacher at the Thomas Saunders Secondary School Godfrey Harry is confident that more athletes who have received their track and field grounding at that institution will be following the footsteps of three former students.{{more}}

This after the trio of Rogike Thorpe, Erasto Da Silva and Kailon Kirby recently gained enrolment at Kingsborough College in New York. But the three are not the only ones who left here three weeks ago for the college, as basketballer Consolo Adams is also among the contingent.

“More doors will be opened for others and since they have been there, inquiries are already on the way about others,” Harry related.

Harry, however, underlined the four young men’s academic standings as pivotal in them obtaining acceptance. Identifying several persons who were key to making the quartet’s enrolment possible, Harry cited the efforts of the Kerosene Lamp Foundation, Sarah Blundred and this country’s Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves as the significant forces.

Harry underscored that their successful entry to Kingsborough was as a result of discussions held with the college’s officials during last year’s Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

The Thomas Saunders Secondary is the only school here to have entered the famed relays. That institution has done so each year since 2011.

Harry confirmed that in the past, inquiries were made of other athletes; however, not much had materialized.

He reiterated that in attending the Penn Relays, the school is not wasting time. Harry and the Thomas Saunders Secondary School’s hierarchy have been at the receiving end of some criticism of their annual sojourn to the Penn Relays for attending the event, with some persons calling it a futile exercise.

Unfazed by the comments, Harry stated that the efforts of school, the organizations here and in the USA, will continue, once participation is possible.

He added that plans are at an advanced stage for another venture at the end of April.

Meanwhile, head of Kingsborough College’s athletics programme Damani Thomas informed SEARCHLIGHT that Thorpe, Da Silva and Kirby will, in the coming week, get their first taste of competition.

Thomas said that his coaching staff was assessing the athletes’ abilities and state of health in the first instance, while they made the adjustments to their new environment, inclusive of the current cold conditions.(RT)