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IF ALL goes according to plan, by next Friday, the Inter-Secondary School Sports Association (ISSA) will start the process of returning sports across the board in schools.
Since March 2020, only the ISSA under-19 schoolboy football competitions and the annual Boys and Girls’ Athletic Championships have been staged because of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, yesterday, ISSA received government approval for a number of other school sports, including, cricket, netball, basketball, and junior football to come back on stream, and president, Keith Wellington, expects to get things under way with the urban and rural area cricket competitions before the end of next week.
“We are happy that we got the approvals to go ahead. We expected this (approvals) based on what has been happening, and it is really satisfying.
“We are now able to make more definitive plans for our competitions with the approval from the Government,” said Wellington.
According to the long-time sports administrator and principal of St Elizabeth Technical High School, plans were already in place pending those approvals, making the transition to holding events that much quicker.
“Scheduling for the various competitions has already been prepared, and we will be making final adjustments in terms of dates and venues now that we have the approvals.
“The schools will get their schedule in a few days. We will be starting with cricket, and we are hoping that by next week Friday, everything will be finalised for us to start,” he continued.
Wellington has always maintained that school sports is vital, not only to the development of the youngsters’ talent, but also to their holistic development as well.
MISSING THEIR SPORT
“We know a lot of students are missing their sport. Some have not played any sports since 2019, and it has been almost three years for these youngsters.
“You have kids who have only played under-14 cricket, football, and netball and are now seniors, so we definitely know that they are going to be grateful for this opportunity,” he noted.
The drastic reduction in the island’s coronavirus cases in recent weeks played a major role in the permits being granted, with ISSA’s only concern now being to ensure that the competitions are held safely.
“That (COVID reduction) would have helped to make the decision of the Government a lot easier. From late last year we would have gotten the understanding that we have to move on and therefore we had to find a way to do things that we normally do, taking into consideration whatever the situation is at the time.
“We didn’t have much difficulty getting the approvals. We presented a well-defined proposal in terms of what we wanted and how we intend to do those things.
“Once we had presented it, it got the blessing of the Government. And the commitments that we have made is to make sure that the competitions can be staged safely,” he said.
However, fans will have to wait a while longer to know if they will get the chance see their favourite high school athletes in action in their respective sports.
“We will provide greater details in the next few days. We need to work out a few things before we start,” he stated.
An ISSA release yesterday revealed that the association received government approval for high school sporting competitions resumption, namely cricket, basketball, netball, and under-16 football over the next two weeks.
Other competitions such as volleyball, table tennis, hockey, and girls’ football are scheduled for later in the Easter term. These competitions are to be completed by April 30, 2022.
Approval was also granted for the annual ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championship to host fully vaccinated fans.
livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com
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