Eltham riding high on commitment, dedication

[Karl]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Eltham riding high on commitment, dedication</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Paul Burrowes, Observer writer
Saturday, November 04, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=350 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Eltham High's football head coach Gregory Allen (left) and his assistant Glenville Holmes showing solidarity at the school grounds. </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Only dedicated, devoted and disciplined athletes with talent earn places on Eltham High's cricket and football teams.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Principal Vivian Foster-Lindo tolerates no flippancy, making clear that Eltham High, founded five years ago, represents a badge of honour, a symbol of excellence.<P class=StoryText align=justify>For two years in a row, the dominant cricket boys carried off the Most Disciplined Team award with Oral Simpson, who also heads the school's Physical Education (PE) department, named Coach-of-the-Year.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In only two years, the football team has netted the Walker Cup, after a solid foundation, while the netball programme is being put together for competition in 2007 and track and field team getting ready for 2008.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Eltham High, with almost 2,000 boys and girls, has made giant steps in their few years at the arena of sports under the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA).
So why has Eltham High been on the up and up?<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=350 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Head of the Physical Education department and cricket coach Oral Simpson (right) addressing members of the cricket team during a training session this week. (Photos: Karl McLarthy)</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>"To prepare for competition we don't prepare for six months. We start from the bottom - the Under 14 - and build from there and that's why over the years we have been so successful. We don't start from the Under 19, we start from the bottom," emphasised the 31-year-old Simpson, a graduate of St Jago High.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"If we are partaking in any sporting event, the players need to be very dedicated and committed. That is our hallmark. Also, academically, we ensure that the students go to classes.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"We are always there to see that they go to classes, with the help of other students, and persons having difficulties get help with extra classes," added Simpson who holds a bachelors degree in physical education at G C Foster College.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The head coach said when they are building a team they first "send out invitations to interested persons" and when the players come together the team objective of dedication is spelt out.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Anything that you are doing, you need to be dedicated, you need to be committed, and that is when you bear fruit," explained the six-foot two-inch Simpson, who has played for Clarendon Cricket Club.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"No matter what age they age they are - Under-14, Under-16, Under-19 - they are always willing to train, they follow instructions and to be honest they know what they want out of this.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"The senior players instill the objective of dedication to the younger players and when they (younger players) become seniors they instill it in others," Simpson po

[Karl]

RE: Eltham riding high on commitment, dedication

So where did these youngsters come from? If there was no Eltham would they have had the opportunity to share the limelight?

What about the many who do not have such opportunities?

Mi seh - Talent deh bouthin ha-bun-dance! Who is there among the massive who still disputes that?

[Sickko]

RE: Eltham riding high on commitment, dedication

Are yopiu sayiongt if they were not at Eltham they would not play Maning Cup or Sunlight? I would say if they had the talent they could play anywhere.

[Karl]

RE: Eltham riding high on commitment, dedication

Sickko (11/4/2006)Are yopiu sayiongt if they were not at Eltham they would not play Maning Cup or Sunlight? I would say if they had the talent they could play anywhere.

I would say if they had the talent they could play anywhere.

If you meant, they would, if they have the talent, play anywhere, then,I use my own experiences to say, No!In many, many cases that is not true.

I was a schoolboy...primary school boy runner. Not too bad then...but, there were many at Little London primary better than I was. I left them at Little London and went on to Mannings and Munro and represented the school...and, fell into the elite group that garnered points at Western Champs and Champs...but, all those left behind fell by the way side. I am thinking that even one or two could have gone on to do much better that I did...and, perhaps, with greater hunger than mind, could have developed into Jamaica T&amp;F stars.

I taught at Penwood Secondary for a short 2 weeks during what was called "teachingpractise" and sawkids with what appeared to me to be tremendous talent...but, the atmosphereat Penwood Junior Secondary as it was then called wasnot the environment within which talent ideally would flourish....

How many with talent are attendingMt. Airy primaryabove Rock on one side..and, Mocho on the other...in Clarendon?...Cedar Valley, in St. Thomas, or Success or Mt. Piecein Hanover? ...etc? etc?

Who is there that visits to see them? Encourage them? Upgrade and give them...good teachers?

Boss, talent abounds...and, not just in the athletic fields...but, academic and in other areas! Never for one moment must we believe that because we were fortunate to be afforded the opportunity to be where we are today...that others with much better talent and in some cases talents were not left behind....

...and, we must remember that today...talents are still being left behind...because the opportunities are not open to them for development to full potential!