featured school boy in observer

[Wahalla]

nuff time I mention the irritation of athlete who are incidental students..In my mind school performance should take primacy over athletic activity.... . I got stung in a case that did this earlier this year, that leaves a bad taste.... This is the kind of athlete schools should produce.....However what the hell is he doing at a school in St Elizabeth if he is from Trelawney ????


Brians on Track


Tuesday, February 25, 2014 1 comment

TARIQ FULLERTON
TARIQ FULLERTON
Munro College — 800m & 1,500m
When did you start track and field?
I started from grade one, I represented Trelawny at the parish level at age six.
How did you get involved in track and field?
A coach introduced me to the cross country (event) in school when I was young and I was beating the older, bigger boys and I just continued.
Who are your local and international track and field idols?
Locally I look up to (Calabar High's) Javon Francis and internationally David Rudisha of Kenya
How do you rate your school's chances in this year's Boys' and Girls' Athletics Championships?
I would say we are getting better as the season goes on... I would not want to give a ranking yet with so much time still to go before Champs, but the guys need to step up. By Champs we will deliver.
Which school do you fear the most and why?
I think Calabar has quality, but KC has depth, so it will come down to the wire, but the focus and the pressure is who deals with it the best on the day, that team will be victorious.
How important is it for a student/athlete to have a solid education?
Education is key and it goes a far way, an athlete can be injured and have to bounce back on their education and qualification to look for a career. So don't put your eggs in one basket, be well rounded, be qualified and it will work out for you.
What are your educational achievements to date?
I have eight CSEC passes and four CAPE unitsand I am currently sitting four more in CAPE units.
What is your ultimate life ambition?
I would like to become a civil engineer or an architect.
Who/what has had the biggest impact on your life thus far?
The biggest impact on my life has been my mother, Inez Gordon, who has motivated me. It has been a struggle, and if I want to go further I have to get a scholarship to further fund my education right up to the university level.

[Wahalla]

one from the past.... ala Lennox Miller another Dentist ...Wonder what happened to Killer Thompson any one else remember him ?


Winning Champs gold like pulling a tooth

But Dr Jon Jones rallies at ‘79 Carifta Games with 4-gold feat


BY HOWARD WALKER Observer senior reporter [email protected]
Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Jones participating in the jumps overseas for the University of Nebraska. (BRYAN CUMMINGS)
HE sat there quietly among the thousands of spectators immersed in the enthralling action of the prestigious Gibson Relays.
Knox Junior School had just won the boys' Under-10 4x100m relay, then suddenly one solitary hand waved in celebration. It was that of dental surgeon Dr Jon Jones.
Relaxed in a red t-shirt with his son in his lap, Dr Jones was clearly a happy man. But his celebration could have been two-fold. It could have been that he was pleased with the young, raw talent he saw at the National Stadium, or it could have been because of the name Knox, which is dear to Jones' heart.
Since 1973, Dr Jones had Knox College in the spotlight at the Boys' Championships, but it was in 1979 that he put Knox College on the map with a sterling performance in winning four gold medals at the Carifta Games held in Kingston.
He had won the sprint double (100m and 200m), plus the long and triple jumps, a performance that still lingers on, some 35 years later, as one of the best ever in Jamaica's history.
"It is more memorable now because you are older and can look back and you can hear how others viewed what you did. But at the time, sports for me was a lot of fun, I enjoyed what I did despite the hard work. Each time I went out to run or play any other sport it was to have fun," Jones told the Jamaica Observer on Saturday during the running of the 38th Gibson Relays.
What makes Dr Jones' Carifta performance so remarkable was that he lost all four events at Champs, but was able to reverse those positions on the bigger stage.
Dr Jones placed second in the 200m and the long jump in Class Two, was fourth in the 100m, and finished fifth in the triple jump open at Champs.
Jones with 10.8 was fourth in the 100m to Calabar's Kenneth 'Killer' Thompson in a record 10.6. He was again behind Thompson's record run of 21.3 for the 200m. He finished second in 21.4 seconds. He had behind him names such as Chris Thelwell of St George's College and Leroy Reid of Camperdown.
But an unfortunate situation at the Carifta Games allowed Dr Jones the opportunity to participate in four events. And the rest was history.
"So the story behind that is that I was only down to do two events, the long (jump) and triple (jump) the night before we were to compete. Mr Mills (Glen) was the head coach at the time and he made an announcement that one of our hurdlers Chris Thelwell from Georges — based on I think an age misunderstanding — he could not run in the Under-17s anymore," said Dr Jones.
"They made a decision that Thelwell would move up to the Under-20s and do the hurdles there. Thelwell was down to run with Kenneth Thompson in the 100 and 200.
"So the jumpers who were in the back of the room were having a wonderful time in the meeting because we knew what we had to do. Then the announcement was that, 'Jon, you have to go and do the 100 and the 200'," he reminisced.
"So for a while, I said, I came to do long and triple now I have to do 100 and 200. But again I said it was for the team and they felt I could do it.
"It was something I had done before because I had done the same four events at Champs, so I said all right, no problem.
"We were staying at Mico and it so happened that all our competitors from Champs were on different floors. So we had this uptown versus downtown rivalry in which floor would get the most medals.
"But in the final, I was against the people who beat me at Champs and I just ran. I can't see myself saying there was a plan to win. I just got up ran and I was closed to Thommo at the finish line and I just out leaned him at the finish in both the 100 and the 200," he revealed.
Jones won the 100m in 10.97 seconds and the 200m in 22.15. He won both jumps in record fashion. The triple jump or what they used to call the "hop, step and jump" in a record 48 ft 5 inches, and the long jump with a leap of 23 ft 1/2 inch, to capture the Austin Sealy Award for being the most outstanding athlete at the meet.
"Competing for Jamaica usually gets us up another notch because this is not your school but your country and even though you are an individual you have to learn to look at the bigger picture. It's not about you, it's about the team and we needed to retain our trophy to be the champion country in the Caribbean," he noted.
Dr Jones, who is now married to radio personality Paula-Ann Porter, believed his school's policy of balancing schoolwork with sport did wonders for him.
"Knox was a school that believed that sport was a part of education. We always had a balance between sports and academics. We had to have a certain number of subjects and PE was one of them. PE was a subject that we had to threat with respect as to all the other sports," said
Dr Jones.
According to him, if a student didn't get the required amount of subjects they could not advance to an higher grade.
"From day one, all the Knox athletes had this balance. The lesson that I have learnt is that it's a lot of hard work and life is about a lot of hard work," he reiterated.
"In life you learn that a lot of times you have to put in a lot of work just to get some just rewards and track and field was an avenue.
"Track is very individual and you have to learn how to push yourself in order to compete with the best. But at the end of the day you will end up competing for a team. So you learn, if you can do your part and do it well, then the team will benefit and that is what has helped me going forward," he added.
"I have been involved in other teams, other sports, other working environment sand it's the same principle. Just do your part and we will all benefit," said Dr Jones.
After four years the dentist said he did not get the chance to finish his Champs career because at the time ISSA ruled that Community Colleges were barred from competing.
He had the choice of transferring to another school, but went overseas to the University of Nebraska for four years, where he became track captain in his senior year.
He completed his Bachelor of Science and fulfilled his boyhood dream of becoming a dentist with four years at Howard University.
He was back in Jamaica in 1987 and actually played Premier League football for Los Perfectos from Mandeville and worked with the Ministry of Health for nearly 24 years.
He taught at the Ministry's dental auxiliary school on Arthur Wint Drive beside the National Stadium and in 2011 the school was closed so he was asked to help set up a dentistry programme at the University of the West Indies.
Dr Jones, who said he still remembers all the lessons learnt from sports, was quick to advise current student athletes.
"They have to remember that they are first a student and that's something that we were taught. Tomorrow, you can have a sprained angle, a broken hand and what do you do?
"The old adage of a good education never decays, is still applicable now. For me, do the work that needs to get you a good education because track and field will carry you so far, but what happens after, and it really goes back to your school. The schools really have to put in place the programmes to support the athletes who are doing sports," concluded Dr Jones.

[RichD]

those Jones boys were very bright

i don't remember killer

[Wahalla]

those Jones boys were very bright

i don't remember killer

I recall "Killer Thomspon of Calabar....

But those times were quick.....

So u know the Jones ???

I take it u could not keep up with them ????

[RichD]

I recall "Killer Thomspon of Calabar....

But those times were quick.....

So u know the Jones ???

I take it u could not keep up with them ????

[Wahalla]

dis guy has been sounding out about school sports in Jamaica...

Academic standards over sports standards


Lascelve GRAHAM
Tuesday, February 25, 2014 4 Comments

Owen Speid, principal of Rousseau Primary School, recently stated in the media: "ISSA seems to have forgotten that chief among the original reasons for having inter-school sports is for students to develop socially, physically and emotionally." Does he not know that students don't need inter-school sports to develop socially, physically and emotionally? Is he aware that the great majority of successful countries, educationally and economically, don't have inter-school sports? And that, where it exists, it plays an extremely secondary role in schools? Can he appreciate that these countries are often fanatical about sports and do very well internationally at a number of sports, but that they organise sports separate and apart from school? Is he cognisant that many of these countries are wary of the competitive intensity encouraged by interscholastic sports, and that many feel it is counterproductive and interferes with the core mission of school?
We cannot continue to warp our education system and lower our standards even further in an attempt to facilitate sports. Times have changed, sports has ballooned in so many aspects, but we lazily continue to want to use the same old methods from the 1940s for youth sports development. It has only served to distort, disrupt and make more difficult our drive to educate all our children.
We must start celebrating education, especially in our schools, as have other countries that have made tremendous strides in educating their population.
According to Speid, ISSA's academic bar is too high and he goes further to say: "I see clear signs of discrimination against a certain cadre of students in our school system. These students are generally from the lower socio-economic strata of society."
The majority of the children in our schools are from poor economic situations, so whatever one does will more than likely affect a lot of them. Perhaps we should do away with CSEC and CAPE since they disenfranchise and discriminate against so many from the lower socio-economic strata of society. Why don't we have strong dancing and dejay-ing inter-school competitions? Isn't this omission disenfranchising and discriminating against many more poor children who need the outlet provided by these activities? Where does it end Mr Speid?
Take your head out of the clouds, come back to earth and understand that without a minimal level of education it will be very difficult for anybody — sports person or not — to make it in this globalised world.
I refer the good principal to an article published in the Observer (23/2/14) titled 'Local footballers cry foul'. It deals with our leagues where many former schoolboy superstars ply their trade and tells of their economic difficulties. This as many scouts come to Jamaica with multiple sports scholarships in hand and return home with very few taken up because of the dismal academic standard of our youth who showed excellent sports potential. Mr Speid and others of his ilk should focus their efforts to ensure that infinitely more of our youngsters leave primary school able to absorb the education offered at the secondary level.
Dr Lascelve 'Muggy' Graham is a former Jamaica football capt

[lonewolf]

nuff time I mention the irritation of athlete who are incidental students..In my mind school performance should take primacy over athletic activity....

That's always been a topic of controversy in the US. But, athletic scholarships over education provides many schools with football programs and basketball programs that are big money makers for the University. And, it provides the professional clubs with a talent pool to pick from(draft). Money is made all around.
And the athlete, if he is wise enough uses his athletic talent to get rich...and if he applies himself, receives an education and diploma for his efforts. Can be a win-win situation for everyone