Western Bureau

Today I am celebrating my 50th birthday and in reflecting on a half a century that has been very kind to me in many respects, I think I can say without fear of contradiction that my everlasting love affair with sports has been one of the defining features of my life.

From the latter stages of my time at infant school, sport was in my blood. I can still remember vividly playing 'baby cricket' with oversized bats fashioned from the back of dry coconut limbs and using underdeveloped oranges, which were usually snatched from low-hanging trees when no adults were around, as balls.

By the time I got to primary school, I was well into cricket. While I was never able to secure a game with the bigger boys in the first few years, I was nonetheless able to watch them play with a fair amount of understanding.

Needless to say, at home, many hours were spent playing matches in my front yard with my brothers and cousins.

In my final two years at primary school, I was considered good enough to be selected on the school team. By then I was also an avid fan of the game, spending long hours listening to the1971 Test series between India and the West Indies on my transistor radio and conjuring mental pictures of stars such as Sir Garfield Sobers and Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar.

shared commodity

When I entered high school, I encountered football for the first time and my long-lasting love for cricket quickly became a shared commodity. As I got more and more into football, I started developing new idols and I was soon spending many hours reading about the Brazilian star Pele, Manchester United's George Best and England's goalkeeping hero, the great Gordon Banks.

While I still continued to play cricket and made my high school team, it was in football that I really made strides. At age 16, I was an established goalkeeper, playing club football for Village United, qualifying to play estate football for Long Pond by virtue of the fact that my sister worked there.

I entered Mico Teachers' College in 1977 to add to my sporting résumé as a physical education as well as to realise my dream of playing club football for Arnett Gardens. While the college aspect went fine, getting to wear the famous Arnett Gardens 'red and black' was not easy as just making the training squad was a difficult as making the first team at some clubs.

By 1980, I had completed my teacher training and was basically qualified to teach, coach and referee and being still only 20, play if I could find the motivation. For reasons still difficult to explain, I headed to the west and secured a job as physical education teacher at St James High.

motivation

Lacking the motivation to continue playing football and cricket seriously except for the occasional 'curry goat' cricket match or corner league football game, I took on the challenge of coaching at St James High and refereeing in the St James domestic competition. I had early success as a coach, guiding St James High team to the 1981 Grace Kennedy All-Island Football title.

After winning the Grace Kennedy title, I submitted an article to the local newspaper detailing the team's exploits. Joel Lawson, who was then a senior sports writer at the newspaper commended me on the article and encouraged me to take on writing as a freelancer. Having done a writing course in college, I decided to take up the offer.

Since linking up with that newspaper over 25-years ago, I have since given up teaching, refereeing and coaching as journalism; especially the sporting aspect has become my passion. Over the years, with help from people like veteran journalist Calvin Brown, I have expanded my range to include entertainment, news and photography.

As I now begin to contemplate life beyond 50, my wife Sharon, my children and the many good friends I have made are now integral features in my life. However, while I am no longer a participant at any level, I simply cannot envisage life without sports.

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