Glengoffe High School yearns for new playing field, gymnasium
Published:Friday | December 24, 2021 | 12:06 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Unnoticed amid the hilly terrain of rural St Catherine are the cries of the administrators and students of Glengoffe High School, whose Christmas wish is for a new playing field and a fully equipped gymnasium to foster the growth and potential of students who are currently suffering from a lack of resources for their sports programme.
Limited to training in the school’s parking lot on asphalted grounds, because they are restricted to the small space of the bumpy playing field that is below the standard size of 400 metres, the athletes have had it incredibly difficult.
This has resulted in many of the students suffering from shin challenges, as they would also make use of the inclines surrounding the school’s compound.
Despite producing promising athletes such as Trishauna Hemmings, who competed for Glengoffe in the Class 2 girls’ 200m at the Eastern Championships in 2014 and is a 100m and 200m hurdler; and Olympian Natasha Morrison, who represented Jamaica at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, winning gold in the 4x100m relay, the school’s principal, Kerry-Ann Harper-Edwards, laments the school’s inability to improve the field.
The school is seeking to expand its sports programme by offering football alongside the already-established track and field club to a population of 371 students. Seventy per cent of the student body are boys, who crave the resources to be involved in sporting activities and make “urgent use of the playfield,” says Harper-Edwards, adding that any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Although work was started in 2018 by former Member of Parliament for St Catherine North Eastern Leslie Campbell, this has been permanently halted, said Harper-Edwards.
She also remarked that since the emergence of COVID-19, a lot of activities and support that organisations would have provided have dried up.
However, she is pleading to corporate Jamaica and past students of the institution to give their support in assisting students to achieve success, academically or otherwise.
“We crave the support of our stakeholders,” she exclaimed, noting that given the school’s limited resources and financial ability, the school has been unable to engage and invest in the “evidence of the potential of our students to excel in sports”.
Due to the condition of the field, the school has also had to travel approximately eight kilometres to the community of Above Rocks to use the fields there. Since the school does not have its own bus, Harper-Edwards says the cost of transportation has been an additional expense for the school.
“There are many challenges,” she told The Gleaner.
They are also hoping for financial assistance to restart the school’s farming activities, as this was one of the income-generating activities that previously benefited the school.