The principal of Kellits High School, Texal Christie, is seeking assistance to help his school develop its sports department, starting with the construction of a playfield.

Christie shared that for many years, the students have shown an interest in netball, football, and track and field, prompting the institution to create teams for the sport. However, he says the lack of resources has made it difficult for the teams to develop and attain their true potential.

“We need help with our sports department. As a non-traditional school, [sports] is one area that we’re working on building up. For our football and netball teams, if we could get some kind of assistance for them, for example, a container they could have for a gym, something like that would be good,” Christie told Our Today.

“The same students who go to Edwin Allen. They are from the same homes here. We know they have the talent. We just need a little help. If we get a little help, they can do just as well or even better,” he added.

The Kellits High principal said that he has contacted the Ministry of Education for assistance with clearing a playfield for the students, which they have promised to send a representative to facilitate the process. However, this has not yet been done, and the students are still without a field.

The football coach at Kellits High School, Kaldone Harris, said the promise for a playfield was made more than 10 years ago.

“We don’t have a playing field for ourselves. We use the Morant Housing Scheme, which is the community centre field. We’re working on a field about 10 years before I’ve been here, and it’s at the same stage since I’ve been here, and I’ve been here for five years. We haven’t made any progress,” he told Our Today.

He lamented the lack of a proper playing field, acknowledging the challenges faced by the rural school.

“We’re here in the rural parts of Clarendon, and you know, for schools like this, which is not a traditional high school, we know that students, most of them, are not academically inclined and probably need more physical activities we can push them in. So, I think sports is an avenue that we can really get them to perform and show their talents,” he shared.

Harris said that the team, despite facing setbacks in the ongoing Dacosta Cup football competition, has shown promise.

He shared that they recently competed in the schoolboy football competition for the under-14s and under-16s. However, they did not make it out of the zoning round. He said the team missed the second round of the under-16 competition by one point.

Harris expressed aspirations to expose the boys to more competitions, allowing them to camp and gain valuable experience. However, the absence of a dedicated playfield hinders practice sessions.

“It is a community centre that [we use to practice], so in the evenings, the boys from the community want to play their football, so we can’t stop them from playing because it’s a community field. We have to finish training a bit early, or sometimes we can’t train because they have a match on the field, [and] we can’t stop them from doing that. If it was our field, then we would have more control over what is being done,” he told Our Today.

Barrington Richardson, regional director in the Ministry of Education, promised to discuss the needs highlighted with a view to finding a solution going forward.