Destroying young athlete’s dream

THE EDITOR: A very nasty trend has developed in the Primary School National East Zone Competition over the past three years. It is wrong for coaches to ‘mess up’ the dreams of young aspiring athletes.

How can anyone justify the fact that when athletes qualify in every preliminary zonal event, sacrifice time away from school, train hard, and be present at every session, then be ‘simply’ replaced on the day of competition by zonal coaches for another athlete who neither trained nor qualified? This is downright disturbing. These coaches return year after year pretending to care, pretending to coach and, without any regard for the athlete, destroy the child’s dream. This is inexcusable! At the recently held Primary School Nationals at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, a budding athlete’s heart was broken by the very coaches that trained him. For weeks this athlete gave up school time, trained hard in sessions, after having qualified and selected to run this event. On the day in question, he was replaced by another athlete who was neither selected nor trained for the event. This is absurd. Needless to say, the child was devastated. This is wrong!

We have athletes making the international circuit, doing us proud and their dreams were realised and nurtured at this very level — The Primary School Nationals. Are we to allow people who call themselves coaches to act impulsively, cause havoc and ruin the hard work put out by our young aspiring athletes? I think not! The sport of track and field is building but will continue to suffer at the hands of these coaches who favour one athlete over the next, regardless of talent displayed. Come on, this cannot be allowed again. Something must be done to prevent East Zone coaches from playing God, making irresponsible decisions that cause confusion in the zone, and take away any chance for true competition and possible victory. Parents sacrifice time and energy to assist at zonal games, something must be done before it is too late. Let us as parents, well wishers come together to save our child athletes from these vultures.

CLARRIE THOMAS
Arima