LEFT: Emrold 'Brother Valentino' Phillip, Peggy Castanada-Phillip (wife),
Ade Castanada-Phillip (son) and Peggy's mom, Mrs. Evelyn Castanada
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TriniView.com Reporters
Interview Recorded: March 19, 2006
Posted: March 10, 2007
TRINIVIEW.COM: Where was the Progressive School located?
PEGGY: The Progressive School was located on Henry Street in Port of Spain and they had the girls at Woodbrook in the Friendly Society Hall. Later on they moved to Robert Street and then they eventually ended up behind Princess Elizabeth Home at the back of Lions. Mr. Holder put out a lot of scholars like teachers, doctors and lawyers. A lot of the scholars were Black people. My husband couldn't understand how his friend, who was sitting on the same bench with him, ended up at Fatima College. When was the exam? Emrold met the guy at the Drums of Freedom event about two years ago. After they spoke to each other, the guy realized that Emrold was the same age as he was. All this time he thought Emrold was the younger one, not knowing that he just wasn't given the chance to do the exam. Mr. Holder was sort of instrumental in my progress back then. Coming straight from the country area, I attended Perseverance School in Belmont, opposite the police station. After about a year when I was about to enter form two, the school decided to close doors. Because I was so talented academically and sporting-wise, the principal decided to make contact with Mr. Holder for mummy and I to meet with him to discuss my achievements. Mr. Holder accepted me in the school for twenty dollars a term. At the time the school fee was forty dollars for a term. After a while Mr. Holder stopped taking school fees from me because I contributed a lot towards the school.
My life with the sport was good and it wasn't from a lack of me trying to make it good also. Sports is my life and I have watched all types of sports. I grew up in the era with people like Martina and they. A lot of people helped contribute to my life in sports. I am a sports freak and my husband tells me I watch too many sports. I am not watching cricket because I cannot take the stress on my heart. I would rather listen to it. I grew up watching Llyod, Richards and Fredericks. The one thing I do not like in the Olympics is the gymnastics balance beam bar. It's so heart rending when the athletes fall off the bar or when they miss their grip. Watching sports sometimes for me is painful because I am so much into it. I have a busy schedule so it isn't always easy for me to keep track of what is happening in the sports. I told Emrold he has to get a television to put in the car. I took up walking because I stopped the excessive playing although I played last year. That was a joke because I am supposed to be retired. I went down to see a game and they were waiting on Bridget Richards because she wasn't there. I sat down watching them play the first game and they lost. They played the second game and lost again but by the third game, of course I had my uniform with me, so I played. My husband was clueless about me playing on that day. When I reached back home the jersey and the skirt were wet so I left it in the car. Emrold asked me what happened with the game and my response to him was, "Well they win this time." Of course, I didn't say anything about me playing. He said to me, "Marvellites registered two new players, I hope you are not one of them." I didn't say anything because I knew I had already played the game. When the next game came up I washed the uniform and hung it out on the line to dry before he came outside. The day of the game, which was a Saturday, I was back on the court playing again. That is how it is with me and the sports. That is me in a nut shell with the sports.
I got Emrold back into sports because he used to play windball cricket. He got back into his sporting life and he plays cricket with the Kaisoca Cricket Team. Since Emrold got the attack of the asthma, whenever he feels it coming on he stops playing for a while. I think I was one of the players who never really took much time off. Apart from just playing the game, I also helped officiate and I umpired a lot so I always had knowledge of the rules and so on. I have been around Jean and Lystra since I started coaching at the age of nineteen. In 1998, when my P.E teacher, Miss Walker, was at St. Francois, she wanted a coach and I was playing for the national team at the time. So I took the position of coaching immediately. I coached for a long time and I never took time off for family and so on. I stopped playing international netball at the age of thirty and now I am going on fifty-three. I went straight through from nineteen years old to thirty years old and continued in the game long after, more than my playing life.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Do you have any final words you would like to share?
PEGGY: I would hope that some part of what we did would be a good example for others to follow. I would like to see the emergence of the sport during my time. I think we should start an under ten age group doing basic skills. We should also have the under thirteen and fifteen age groups as well. The sport should be used as a vehicle for especially our young people who are from the areas where playing a big time sport you have to buy a racket or buy a golf club...as they say, grass roots. But I think people on the whole, because it is grassroots in Trinidad. I would like to see the sport coming to the fore again. It is hard seeing us world ranking as number ten from number one. It is so hard that when we have netball in Trinidad, I do not go. I went to the game the year the Jamaicans beat us and I have never been back. I have not seen any international games and I do not see them playing on television.
We used to play twice as nice and much better. If our old team goes out to give a show now they might beat us, but the type of netball you would see is nothing like what you see now. I find the game has slowed down. We should take it at an earlier stage, carry it to the communities, make it a community-oriented sport. They should let each village or each county do something like have a vibrant school competition. I think that could help. The breaking up of the Junior Secondary Schools created a lot of problems. If you have to coach the students from the Junior Secondary Schools, you have to let them come in the mornings and the evening shift comes in the morning and the morning shift stays after. When you see the bus or the maxi come for those children, they run out of your session and they go their way. We need to get the sport into the curriculum and not as an afterthought in the curriculum. It should be a part of the curriculum. If you have movement education from the first year, by standard two, the kids should be through the basic skills and by the time they reach ten or eleven they could start to play the game and so on. People who have kids with talent more or less know what they have to do for the kids, but what about the people who do not know what to do with their kids when they have talent? If they come through the system you should be able to identify them. We should do more scouting and make transport available. I coached some very good players from Toco. They came down to Port of Spain last year to play. It is not easy to travel from Toco to come down to Port of Spain and play. I think they either won the game or placed second. Each school should have a bus... it is not very expensive. We cannot let the money pile up in the Treasury alone. We have to start from the bottom.
Peggy Castanada-Phillip in pictures:
www.triniview.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=148683
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