SALEM – The Montserrat Secondary School (MSS) will this year be organising its first annual Secondary School Basketball League.
According to coordinator Business Teacher Ruel Duke, “the league seeks to be a school initiative designed to motivate and inspire students to be involved in basketball throughout the course of the school year.”
The league will be divided into two stages to be played over the half term breaks of the first and second term. During each half term break there will be two games played each night (Thursday and Friday) between the various houses of the school, (Blue, Green, Orange and Red).
The competition will conclude during the schools’ annual athletic meet with the top ranked teams playing the lower ranked teams.
The programme will also aim to merge students’ academic performance to their athletic performance by imposing a requirement for participants to maintain at least a C grade average in order to qualify to play in the tournament.
“The reason for choosing a C grade is because most of the boys that are interested in basketball are currently attaining a grade below a C. The idea is to use a passing grade as the minimum requirement to reduce the percentage of boys failing academically and ultimately cultivate smarter athletes,” the teacher explained.
This league will be coordinated and managed by the schools’ basketball extra-curricular programme with the assistance of the physical education department of the school and the Montserrat Amateur Basketball Association (MABA). The proposed venue will be the indoor basketball centre at Little Bay.
The event will assist the students currently preparing for their Physical Education and Sports SBA’s by giving them the opportunity to help plan a sporting activity and also allowing them to have exposure to hands on experience in first aid if the need arises. The Business students of the school will also be able to work along with the organizers to plan and assist in the purchasing and selling of refreshments, ticket sales and the preparation of accounting records of the event.
It is the vision of the organizers that this event would create students who are able to succeed academically and athletically and also to give the students exposure to their area of their studies.
