SPORTS

Both the University School and St. Mary's College have excellent reputations in sports and other such activities. St Mary's in particular is well known for stressing the importance of non-academic activities in the development of its students.

At UWI School I participated in football and cricket, representing the school and my House (captaining the House teams in my last year there). Through the school I joined the Pax Cricket Clinic in St. John's Village, St. Augustine, where I was coached in the skills and tactics of the game by Mr John Hernandez, Jr. I was co-captain of the club team, and later captain of the school team. When the girls of the school expressed interest in learning the game, I stayed back after school to help John coach them, and to umpire their games.

I learnt to swim at UWI School, during compulsory weekly swimming classes, and once represented the school at a Primary School Swim Meet. This had a huge influence on my later activities with the Sea Scouts.

While I was never good enough to represent St Mary's at football or cricket, I continued to play both games in the Inter- Class leagues each year. The five classes in each Form competed against each other in a friendly but fiercely competitive forum.

In the Sixth Form, where the league was not run on a class basis, I entered the Senior League along with a group of friends as "ABC" - for want of a better name (the initials stood for various things depending on who you spoke to!). I captained the side, and we quickly became the team to beat. Eventually we won the league and knock-out competitions, beating the Teachers in the final of the latter by a score of around about 8-4. The achievement was all the more impressive because our side was the only one comprising ONLY players who had never represented the school. We also won the Senior Cricket League that year, with more or less the same group of players.

Although longer class hours at UWI prevented regular sporting activities (I usually had labs running until 5 or 6 p.m.), I still managed to participate in the GUADIY (Get Up And Do It Yourself) League for students while in Second Year. I was a member of the abysmally poor football side "Nebular", comprising the core of "ABC", but which never won a game! ("Nebular" was a favourite term of St. Mary's Principal, Fr. Dick) Our sole source of pride was improving from a 9-0 scoreline against "QFA" before the competition, to 3-0 during the league!

In addition to all this, I pride myself on my willingness to try different sports. Over the years I've participated informally in tennis, badminton and most recently squash. I play table tennis regularly at home.

At St Mary's College, I joined the First Trinidad Sea Scouts, the better of the two Scout troops at the school. There I continued my development in swimming, to the extent that I now consider myself a strong swimmer. I was also trained in life saving skills, and received the qualification Bronze Medallion (the basic requirement to work as a life guard) and Standard Resuscitation. My fondest memories of the Scouts was gaining practical experience as a Life Guard for various children's groups, including from the Tacarigua and Belmont Children's Homes, and a Cub Scout Troop from San Fernando.

Our other main activity in the Scouts was rowing and camping. We had a boathouse in Carenage, and a camp site at Pointe Gourde, and every school vacation we rowed to the campsite (a 2 hour trip) and spent 4 or 5 days there, living in tents, and rowing to various sites in the area, such as Gasparee (half an hour rowing) and Scotland Bay (another 2 hour trip). Learning to handle small vessels at sea was a vital part of our training.

Through the Sea Scouts I developed a love for the sea and for the outdoors, which helped me in my decision to study Zoology for my first degree, and led to me learning to SCUBA dive later on.

In Sixth Form at St. Mary's I was elected by the Fifth and Sixth Form students as a School Prefect. In that capacity I was involved in enforcing discipline among the younger students, organising a number of school activities (Inter-Class sports, May Fair, Sports Day, various fund raising activities, etc.), and was generally expected to be a good example and leader to the younger boys. I was personally responsible for a Form One class.

At UWI School I followed the family tradition by participating in music. I was a member of the choir, and also played the tenor pan in the school's small steel band.