With plans in place for the celebration of Saint Lucia’s 44th Independence Anniversary , organisers have been drumming up support for participation and support from the wider community in areas of arts and entertainment, commerce, trade, academics, and yes sports, too.
But a northern-based secondary school, the Corinth Secondary School [CSS] among a few others are not contented with the action taken by the island’s sports management administrators to deny the institution an opportunity for their athletes to display their skills and participate in the highly anticipated familiar fanfare and peer-friendly rivalry that accompanies these meets.
To some of the athletes this will be the final time that they get to perform for their respective houses and fans.
And while the sports facility administrators have put out a public statement to bring across their point for accessibility to national sports facilities, the students are nonetheless not impressed and have expressed their disappointment over the matter and the “unjust” treatment they feel have been meted out to them.
While expressing his views on the matter, Principal of the CSS Willard Andrew said the students approached him on the issue to say blankly: “Sir, this is not fair …”
Had the matter been one of a national undertaking that would not have posed a problem, he noted, but to deny the students and athletes use of the Daren Sammy Cricket Grounds [DSCG] is rather unfair.
“We would not mind had it been a big cultural show staged at the grounds,” declared Andrew. “But to deny the students that opportunity they have worked so hard for as they looked forward with enthusiasm for the meet, is really disheartening for the students, athletes and staff as well.”
Jamaican Dancehall artiste Dexta Daps has been booked to perform at the DSCG, on February 21, the eve of Saint Lucia’s Independence anniversary and the promotion and publicity has been on.
According to a statement from Sports Saint Lucia Incorporated (SSI), the SSI is a not-for-profit entity, and its main areas of focus are the DSCG – an international venue, and the Mindoo Phillip Park – a national facility.
The release states that the SSI board and management has liaised with ministry of sports personnel, schools, and national sporting federations in seeking ways “to allocate the use of facilities under its mandate in such a manner that as many events as possible are accommodated, whilst being mindful of the demand for DSCG and MPP, which is usually high and not always feasible to allow the use of these venues.”
An SSI spokesperson said the MPP is normally preferred for hosting inter-house track and field meets, due to the nature of its surface, its centrality, its ability to take a 300m track, and the fact that field events can be held there.
Subsequently, in 2022, the Ministry of Infrastructure conducted assessments on the feasibility of the MPP, with a view to completely renovating that facility. However, the process has not been completed, and thus makes the MPP unusable for inter-house track and field.
Due to the tight schedule of events and requests from several schools for a facility to host their respective athletic meets, the SSI indicated that “DSCG would be the preferred venue for inter-house track and field.”
And given the SSI’s mandate, which is “to promote national development in sports”, the costs of staging these school sports is covered by the SSI, albeit in the interest of the student athletes.
The SSI official disclosed that events at the DSCG have “been booked for DSCG, which already has provisional bookings as far as July 2023”, and consequently, with several additional dates being requested for use of the facility, coinciding with “some of the dates on which schools had hoped to have their track meets were not feasible.”
Notably, states the SSI, the DSCG is regarded as “a multi-purpose venue, and as such, we must be respectful of all users, whether revenue-generating or otherwise.”
However, a report from Winners TV stated that dates to host the school sports had been given since last December, and further confirmation given in January this year to include not only CCS, but Entrepot Secondary School and Castries Comprehensive Secondary School would be allowed to host their school sports respectively on February 20, 21 and 24.
CCS physical education teacher Sherwin Alexander expressed his grouse with the issue, stating that: “If we have about 700 plus students who are going to be using a facility that was made for national athletic events and sporting events, why bump us off …for a foreigner (artiste) who is coming down and it’s occurring the day before our Independence.”
He added, “For me, this does not show a true appreciation or value for what’s ours because we’re putting ourselves back for a foreign artiste, but also it shows what we value.
And I can see from this right here that we don’t value our future, especially our young people in sports.”
In a public speech, last year, Minister for Sports Kenson Casimir stressed on the need to prioritize youth and sports development on the island. At the time, the minister indicated that the grounds should not be used for non-sporting activities and that the island needed a separate national events centre.
The minister even suggested that Gros Islet and Pigeon Island were better placed to host such mass-crowd entertainment events.
Moving on, it begs the question as to: Whether entertainment events have more precedence over the island’s young athletes?
Are the sports facility administrators not bent on working in favour of students-athletes, and are the young athletes being denied an opportunity to display their skills?
These are some of the pertinent issues being discussed in wider public circles, and this issue will most certainly come up again as the island’s athletes seek out the use of proper sporting facilities to harness their skills.