Celebration of Progressive Netball Champs at French Street - 4th December, 1970
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TriniView.com Reporters
Interview Recorded: March 19, 2006
Posted: March 10, 2007
TRINIVIEW.COM: What are you doing in terms of the basketball and the netball?
PEGGY: Well, I am presently working with the Ministry of Sports. I am attached to the south-east counties where I work with primary schools, community groups and secondary schools. I conduct seminars and courses for coaches and umpires in the districts they are working in. I used to work north-east but they moved me to south-east and I even had a stint in St. George West and St. George East. I have never worked in Caroni, Victoria and St. Patrick. That is what I do presently and still work with Marvellites. Spare time, if we have boys in the session, we would go to a school and if the boys want to play, and there isn't a basketball coach, I would coach the basics of basketball.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What do you think can be done to encourage better development for sporting facilities in the schools?
PEGGY: Well, they talk about 20/20 vision but one of the things I think we should really do is to make sure all schools have a covered area. It doesn't have to be a gym or anything fantastic but an area where you can introduce indoor games like field hockey, basketball and netball where the elements would not affect the training. I also think the training should begin at an earlier age. We cannot have indoor facilities in all the schools, but some schools have big enough halls. They do not take sports into consideration before they build the facilities. I find all primary schools should have gymnastic bars, a covered area and an outside field. The schools should have a physical education teacher and not a teacher who is doing physical education. The physical education teacher should be responsible for the children knowing about sports and movement education because those things are an integral part of growing up. I spent a few minutes trying to get a child to jump over a line because she couldn't bring herself to do it. Some of these children cannot catch. Those are some of the reasons why their learning process is so slow. The children are not active at all. There are parents who actually tell their children not to run, jump and climb. I used to play a lot when I was small. I remember my mother used to tell me "All you could do is play". Even my principal used to say to me, "Playing will get you nowhere Peggy." The playing did get somewhere. If it wasn't for the netball they would not have kept me in the service where I work. Some people feel that sports is a deterrent but it is not.
Unfortunately sports is not often seen as something important and I think that is where we are having the problem. Sports is also a social skill and it encourages people to work as a team. You have to learn to live with people of different races, different classes, different religious backgrounds and so on. Imagine children are not allowed to run in some school yards. You would be surprised to see how some children walk a line. If the children are exposed to the games and allowed to play in their own environment they will learn faster. We really need to have facilities and assign coaches or trainers who will also ensure the maintenance of the facilities. I think the girls who get into basketball and netball are real tomboys but they still remain ladies. Some women tend to believe sports will get them hard and they will get bruises or they wouldn't be able to grow their fingernails. They just do not want to do away with certain things. They do not like to sweat and some of them do not want their hair to get messed up. If they want to put on their tights and wait at the side of the road to be noticed by the boys, then they are missing out. Long ago, the big attraction for the boys was the short skirts and knickers because they wanted to see legs.
The children's attention span is too short and they are too hyper, possibly from too many snacks and soft drinks. We need to look at the education system and put more emphasis on the physical and the mental development. When you look at a place like Cuba, we cannot beat them in athletics. Everybody should take part in the physical education at a certain time, academics in the morning and after lunch you get into music, drama, sports and so on. Once you have the physical attributes you should be taken and trained. There are parents who do not want the kids to go for that training because they figure the children will have problems with their academics, but it is just a plan, it's like a time-table. Some people believe sports will prevent you from achieving your goals but we have players who are very educated. I remember the little east Indian girl from the St. Mary's Home. She attended the Bishop's Anstey School and eventually became a doctor. She was the top netballer at the St. Mary's Home and also at the Bishop Anstey School. When she entered the University she stopped playing. She was a player I used to admire. Once you have your aspirations you can do it. Rachael, who was my good friend, attended the St. Joseph College and U.W.I. Rachael was able to combine the two. I think she went to Montserrat to live. I thought she was going to get married to the Chief Minister but he decided to get married to somebody else. She still remained in Montserrat. Many of us were not at that level of education but we aspired and achieved what we wanted. We did our courses and what not and we moved forward. I do not think sports could keep you back; it is up to the individual. I think it is how you go about it that would make the difference.
I learned a few things from watching the boys like Lenny, 'Biggy', Alfred and Eddy when they were playing basketball. Today the girls do not go to watch the skills; they go to look at the boys. I saw the best and that is what helped me in my development. Back then the commentator was a guy called Anderson from the Express Newspaper. Anderson was a bright boy and he ended up in journalism. I remember he used to tease Mr. Headley. Then there was Tommy who started coming around. Anderson and Tommy used to have it out. I know Tommy as a young boy with a copy book rolled up in his back pocket and a pencil at the back of his ears going to school in his khaki pants and blue shirt. Tommy used to have people laughing from the top of the Valley Road going straight down to the Methodist school. Those are some of the guys were around the sport. Long ago, it wasn't just about the sport; it was about the social interactions with the jokes, the teasing and so on. People wanted to be there. That is what the kids are missing, the social interactions. On the job you see teachers in cliques where one group doesn't speak to the other group and so on. They do not have any social skills mainly because they focus so much on the academics. The teachers are no longer taking time off to spend with the children on an afternoon. There are many activities the children can get involved with like Scouts, Guides, Red Cross and so on. We can make use of the facilities we already have to train people. We have a lot of top players in every sport in this country who can give lectures based on their own personal experiences and knowledge of the various sports.
I have seen many parts of the world. My travels have taken me to Barbados, Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Montserrat, passing through Dominica, Guyana, Hawaii, England, Singapore, Saudi Aribia, Muscat and New Zealand, just to name a few. One of my experiences in New Zealand was seeing the Aborigines traditional way of cooking in the earth. I have learned and experienced a lot of things in my travels. Those are some of the things you get from sports that you wouldn't normally get. I think I am a better person because of my sports. I have learned how to take defeat, become more humble and a better understanding about winning, joy and sorrow. I remember in 1982 when we played against Antigua in St. Kitts. The game was going on and we were six goals behind with six minutes to go. Jean was walking around saying, "Six goals, six minutes to go, what are you all doing about it?" You know how passing the ball was my thing, so two players decided they would block Cyrenia so I stopped passing the ball and I was at the edge of the circle. Needless to say, the game continued and we beat them by two with six minutes to go. After the game I heard them saying, "But Chinee, the whole tournament you eh shooting no long ball, we say you cyar shoot." I said, "But ah could pass." I know about crying and trying to shoot at the same time during a game because my opponent's hand missed and hit me in my face. Things like that remain with you and they help you to be a better person into what eventually you turn out to be.
I thank people like Jean, Lystra and Mr. Cartey for showing me the basics of basketball and for helping me acquire the love for basketball which helped me to transfer what I learned to netball. Some people, although they are already into netball, they are now really learning how to play the game. Children should be exposed to general sports so that when they reach a certain age they can select what they want. If I had listened to my primary school teacher when she told me I was too short and fat, I would not have been a netballer. The year after she told me that, W.I.T.C.O. had an under twenty-one tournament for the first time and I was one of the shooters on the team. We played East Tobago, San Fernando, Point Fortin and Port of Spain and we won the tournament. I was shooting and that was my achievement at that time. What she told me motivated me to go further. Another thing that stood out was playing the finals with Progressive against Minerva College. Progressive had six players because the other shooter was late for the game. It was decided that we would go on with the six players. We won the game and at half-time we were leaving. Our team had two defenses and two shooters and I was one of the shooters. Although there were many other things, that was one of the things that stood out in my memory in shooting and playing. Back then Mr. Hamilton Holder was our principal and also the Mayor of Port of Spain.
Progressive was a sporting school, a lawyer school and a doctor school. Although it was private, a lot of teachers in Trinidad and Tobago, doctors from the early days and lawyers went to Progressive. Only certain people were selected to do Secondary School exams. Some of the secondary schools were Q.R.C., Bishops, C.I.C. and Fatima. My husband was in the same class with a guy who did the exam and he passed for Fatima College. My husband was not picked to do the exam, nor was he aware of the exam. His parents had to pay for him to go to a private school. A lot of people ended up in the Progressive School because of that same situation. If you were not in that bracket long time, you didn't get a secondary school education. Mr. Hamilton Holder started the Progressive Private Secondary School because many students were not given the opportunity to get into what was considered the "exclusive" schools at the time.
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