FOR A LONG time now Barbadian athletes have been shining, even from as early as primary school and what we now call NAPSAC. We have been seeing children develop and get better and better every year in primary school and then all the way in tuh secondary school. Rivaldo Leacock is a typical example.
I could remember seeing this li’l boy running in St Stephen’s school sports. He and another li’l boy, I think his name was Croney, ran and actually win in evah single race. The two o’ dem like duh was competing wid one another. I could also remember dat it was the last year fuh both o’ dem at St Stephen’s. Dat school sports day was at the Carlton grounds there in Black Rock.
The next time I hear the name Rivaldo Leacock, I was in shock. It was at the secondary school sports at the National Stadium and he was running fuh the Lester Vaughan Secondary School. I could not believe my ears. I had tuh call my nephew who was now in his last year at St Stephen’s Primary School and who also competed and get beat the previous year by this same boy, tuh ask him if it was the same Rivaldo Leacock. I aint know what happen tuh the other lil boy since then but look at Rivaldo today.
He is only one example, but duh got so many other children who are household names even long before duh get in tuh secondary school. Well, ya know dat after the change tuh a secondary school it might take a li’l time tuh get accustom tuh the new system and the school but if dat school got a good sports programme and the people responsible for it could encourage dem tuh get involved, these children who was so good in NAPSAC would now excel in BSSAC, as some of dem are doing now.
We need tuh start helping the families o’ these children who express an interest in sports. We need tuh start tuh help the families o’ these athletes wid the necessary things they would need rather than letting dem struggle and then giving up because duh ain’t got the means tuh support these talented children. Then we does lose dem and duh just become ordinary.
Evahbody cahn be a scholar, a doctor, a lawyer or any o’ dem kinds o’ things so; duh got tuh have some kind o’ balance and sports is a profession too. So in the same way dat we Government does invest in education, it should invest in sports too. What about sports tourism? Isn’t dat another way of wooing more tourists tuh the island?
Jamaica does invest heavy in duh athletes and dem is a force tuh be reckoned wid all around the world. Whenevah the Olympics come round, we Bajans should be up in there wid the Jamaicans. We got just as much talent as the Jamaicans; we got raw talent dat needs tuh be nurtured.
So I calling pon corporate Barbados, we the general public and the Government of Barbados tuh help these talented young people tuh become great.
We need more sportspeople like Sir Garfield Sobers’, like Obadele Thompson, like Suki King, like Barbadian names pon the world map, pon the world stage. We need all the help we can get tuh help our athletes tuh become great, not just good and then be forgotten.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
