ISSA RULES ON STUDENT ATHLETES NEED REVISIT

Much has been said and written about the exclusion of Odean Skeen and Demar Robinson from the ISSA Boys and Girls Athletic Championships 2013. Both young men, reports said, did not meet the required academic standards set by the Inter-Secondary Schools Spors Association (ISSA) that would have allowed them to compete for Wolmer’s Boys and Calabar respectively.

Now that the championships are underway these two young men will be relegated to the back  burner while the nation focuses on the ongoing battles on the track and in the field to see who will come out on top on Saturday night. My personal opinion is that Calabar and Edwin Allen will successfully defend their titles but only just. Of bigger concern to me however, is that the obviously broken system will continue to perpetrate the hypocrisy or double-standard that forced two of the island’s most talented athletes out of the championships.

As former principal of Camperdown Cynthia Cooke stated on my radio show a couple weeks ago, high school sportsmen and women are the only people subjected to these standards. No one checks who has the required grades when a student has to represent their school at the dramatic arts so why then are athletes held to this ‘higher’ standard?

The other thing that troubles me is that Skeen was accepted at Wolmer’s because he could run really fast, and over the years – based on his academic achievements – not much seems to have been done to help him achieve his full potential as a student. He was even allowed to attend sixth form even though it was apparent that he had not met the required standard. Why then at this late stage when he is virtually out the door, is he now being brought to book and being denied doing what he does best for Wolmer’s and has been doing for Wolmer’s for the past few years?

If this was an effort to go after Robinson and with the ISSA president being the principal of Wolmer’s, Skeen was made the sacrificial lamb, it would smack of even greater hypocrisy because both young men are not alone in falling below academic standards. I would venture to say that there are many more student athletes – male and female – who are falling short. Why then are they not barred, since ISSA is holding these two boys up as examples of the governing body’s ‘good work’ of helping student athletes maintain their academic standards.

I won’t even bother mentioning the influence of old boys on the schools that are chewing up and spitting out athletes all for the sole purpose of winning Champs, because that would require more space than is allowed here. What I will say however, is that there needs to be a revision or an overhaul of the current system as it relates to holding students to minimum academic standards.

I am fully supportive of the idea of kids attending school to learn, but that is solely from an academic perspective. School is where kids learn the fundamental skills that will help shape their careers. It is where they will begin the relationships that will allow them to ‘fall back’ on something sturdy should their athletic careers come to naught. School can be the foundation for a very successful life. However, from a more holistic perspective, is it just to deny a student athlete the right to use all the talents available to him or her just because they are unable to matriculate academically to their full potential?

I have a friend who attended school here in Jamaica and was barely able to read or write. His ability to run fast earned him a scholarship to an American university. Five or six years later he graduated with honours and returned to this country well-educated. During his time in college he managed to improve his reading and writing skills and he discovered that he had an aptitude for certain things at which he eventually excelled.

Who knows what Skeen and Robinson will be denied by not being out there for these championships – a scholarship, a million-dollar contract perhaps? This is a new age and things that obtained years ago sometimes have to evolve in order to remain relevant. Denying these young men an opportunity to compete denies them the ability to truly be all they can be. At this moment they may not be the best students, but they are among the best of athletes. School is supposed to bring out the best of us, so why are they punished for being good at one talent and not so good at another?