Another school has come out and expressed dissatisfaction with the way the organising committee of the Barbados Secondary Schools’ Football League (BSSFL) has handled this year’s Under-19 competition.
Like Alexandra School before them, Harrison College have lodged a protest, believing they were disadvantaged after the committee ruled they had defaulted a match. They subsequently were eliminated from the play-offs.
In a letter to the BSSFL secretary, dated December 1, Harrison College have taken issue with the fact that the public relations officer had informed them in a general email, that all of their matches had been completed and they had lost three.
The letter, signed by deputy principal Joseph Maynard, head of the Physical Education department Ryan Leacock, and football coach Winston Brathwaite, said they had completed six of the seven matches, the one outstanding being against Deighton Griffith.
The letter stated that the match couldn’t be played on November 8 as fixtured and a “prolonged period of inclement weather which rendered our facilities unsuitable for play” had been communicated to the league and the opposing school. Both schools agreed to play the match at a later date.
“We were most aggrieved to hear that a call was placed to the coach of that school indicating in essence that it would not make sense to play the game since it had been decided by the executive of your organisation that Harrison College had lost the game by default.”
It went on to say: “We are indeed mystified as to the basis for such a decision since the rules allow for a postponement of matches given good reason.”
Six reasons were listed in the letter including the fact that the field was waterlogged; the timeframe didn’t allow for reasonable arrangements to be made to travel to Deighton Griffith; the coach of Deighton Griffith was unaware that the match had been rescheduled and had made no preparations to travel to Harrison College, and even though it was not expressly stated in the rules, Harrison College were open to playing at neutral venues.
In the interest of “fair play, honesty and decency” in a competition founded “for youngsters to have every chance to play and hone their skills in an atmosphere of collegiality, safety and self-respect”, the match should be played since both parties had agreed to do so and there was no impediment to it being played, the letter stated.
Leacock told MIDWEEK SPORT there was a pool of water in the 18-yard box on the day the match was scheduled to be played. Brathwaite went to Deighton Griffith and spoke to the coach there, only to realise he was unaware of the change in fixtures and had been expecting to play Parkinson Memorial.
In a subsequent conversation with BSSFL president Dave Small, this was communicated and they were told to send a formal protest.
“We have received no response, but the next email we received had the standings and the quarter-finals,” Leacock said.
“Up to now, outside of a general email being sent out to all of the coaches, no one has sent a personal letter to us saying we have defaulted the game.”
They are pondering the next step.
“We spoke to the principal [Winston Crichlow] about it and told him the situation and what is going on at Alexandra.
He said he would liaise with Mr [Jeff] Broomes.
“We may have to get an injunction to put a halt to the competition, which I wanted to avoid at all costs. I hate to see when sports have to go to court.”
Leacock said a similar situation had happened before and they had let it slide, but for the sake of the children, they had to protest this time.
Alexandra were also protesting that they were denied the chance to play an outstanding match against Coleridge and Parry, resulting in them also being eliminated from the play-offs.
Principal Broomes is calling for the matter to go before a special sports committee set up by the Barbados Association of Public Principals (BAPPS) a few months ago.
