DISCIPLINE PAYS OFF FOR MUCURAPO SENIOR COMP

"For when the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name/ He marks — not that you won or lost — but how you played the game.": Grantland Rice, Alumnus Football.

When Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive School emerged North Zone champions last week of the British Gas Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) for the second consecutive year their achievement not only represented an overcoming of negatives but was a demonstration as well that discipline, invariably, pays off. Theirs was a story of accepting and overcoming challenges that should make every Trinidadian and Tobagonian proud.

That the Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive football team was able to triumph in the SSFL’s North Zone was a virtual miracle. (I am writing this column on Monday afternoon.) To fully appreciate the discipline shown by these youngsters it should be noted that after some 30 years of the school’s existence, Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive still does not have its own playing field. Indeed, had it not been for the gracious magnanimity of its principal rival in the SSFL’s North Zone, Fatima College, and the accommodation of the Mucurapo Junior Secondary School, both of which allow Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive footballers to train on their fields, Mucurapo Senior would have been hard pressed (forgive the cliche) to have reached the top of the North Zone.

In addition, almost all of the members of the football team come from low income families, transport costs money and the school does not have a bus at its disposal to transport the players to and from football matches. Such a bus, along with being used in other school activities needing transport, could be loaned out on occasion to the nearby Mucurapo Junior Secondary School.

Meanwhile, practising on the Mucurapo Junior Secondary School’s ground is hazardous as the field is clearly unfit and desperately needs fixing. Indeed, the situation with the field is so uncomfortable that the Junior Secondary School does not play any home games there, and each time that the Senior or Junior school’s football team practises on it there is the accepted element of risk. In turn, neither school has any insurance policies on the players which would assist with medical expenses, inter alia, in the event of injury arising, say, from using the playing field. Yet Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive soldiers on, with the boys prepared to train there in spite of the clear lurking dangers.

The overall situation was not satisfactory and I would not be surprised if, although officials of the Ministry of Education have been apprised, the matter may not been drawn to the attention of the Education Minister, Senator Hazel Manning. And even as I salute the generosity of Fatima College, whose action is in the highest tradition of Trinidad and Tobago sportsmanship, it is still ludicrous for Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive to have to depend on its principal rival to allow it the use of its facilities for training. Somehow, there is an irony in all of this.

The Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive footballers are a truly disciplined lot. Their training sessions begin at 6.30 on a morning, even on weekends, under the guidance of Head Coach, Selris Figaro; Assistant Coach, Ian Clauzel, the both of them, former national players, and Ian Dore, trainer. In addition, they train again on afternoons on most days of the week. They listen to and follow, closely, the instructions of the coaches et al. I had mentioned earlier that most of the players come from lower income families. Because of this their diets would not be the same as those of footballers, say, of Fatima College or that of my alma mater, The Queen’s Royal College.

But they persevere, nonetheless, and this discipline will help them, ultimately, to contribute to the growth and development of themselves and by extension that of Trinidad and Tobago. A critical factor in their success as footballers in the British Gas Secondary Schools Football League is that in addition to the coaching and training they receive from Figaro, Clauzel and Dore, is the full moral support of their Principal, Mrs Marlene Smart, and their Deans and teachers, including Mrs Betty Adams-Skeete and Mrs Lydia Jackson. They are, invariably, there to cheer them on, and the youngsters received an extra moral boost, recently, when they were presented to the Minister of Education, Mrs Manning, before a crucial match. And what was equally important was that Minister Manning stayed on to see a substantial part of the match. The message received by them, the opposing side and the parents of and students attending both schools, by Mrs Manning’s presence was that the match was important to her and the Ministry she heads.

The team’s midfielder, and easily one of the best Under-20 footballers in the country today, Atullah Guerra, reminds of the Brazilian great, Pele. Atullah Guerra plays the sort of game that made Pele famous, passing around the ball a lot and constantly on the lookout for openings. When he collects the balls he raises his head, reminiscent of Pele, looking to see to which player he can pass it. There are other outstanding Mucurapo players as, for example, defender Khaleem Hyland, goalkeeper, Cazabon; Al Mohammed and Akim Armstrong. But I have strayed.

Even with the minuses, particularly the minus of not having their own playing field, the footballers of Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive have been and are prepared to soldier on. But life, unfortunately, does not begin and end with football. And although several of the school’s leading players may receive contracts there is a need for them to prepare for life after their football days are ended normally or are abruptly brought to a premature halt because of severe injury.

There is a need to develop skills, and while, admittedly, there are students there who recognise this the drive that allows many student-players to light up a football match and field does not appear to be as strong as in the classroom, whether in the field of academic or vocational and technical education. Yet the motivation has to be as strong as that which urges the school’s footballers on to victory and to the further building of a name for their institution. I wish to make this clear. There is motivation, inner or otherwise, and one sees it in the dedication and concern of the teachers. But there must be a demonstration in the classrooms and workshops by the students of the discipline that today carries them forward on the football field.

The teachers, the Deans and the Principal, Mrs Smart, are determined that their efforts are reflected across the board in the positive responses of their charges. And already there are signs. In turn, there is a need for corporate support of school projects which will signal an interest in the progress of the student population.

It was late Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, George Chambers, who in delivering the 1975 Budget Speech would declare with feeling Government’s "decision to restructure the educational system to make it more attuned to the requirements of the economic and social system....It is useless merely to say that jobs must be found for (the) students. We cannot change the technology to suit the training; the training must be related to the technology of the type of industries which we can develop in order to create jobs." If the students of the Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive School can make their discipline in training for football matches and on the football field work for them in the classroom Mr Chambers from his final resting place would be proud.