INSIDE GRENADA FEBRUARY 17, 2008 by Wallace J.A GRENADA: “I see more schools coming to Progress Park to hold their sports after the success I saw here today.” These were the words of one spectator at Progress Park on Thursday. His sentiments were echoed by many other patrons, sporting enthusiasts and past students of the St. Andrew’s Anglican Secondary School (SAASS) who converged at the upgraded sporting facility at Progress Park to witness the first major athletic sports meeting for 2008. A conservative estimate puts the size of the crowd in the region of 2000 persons. This year, SAASS took the bold initiative to move away from Victoria Park, Grenville – the traditional venue for athletic competitions – and settled for Progress Park - an area on the fringe of the town of Grenville that experienced significant upgrades in preparation for last year’s Cricket World Cup. The playing field at Progress Park offers several advantages over Victoria Park: it has a 400m track (Victoria Park has a 300m); the track area is better maintained which significantly reduces the possibility of athletes getting injured while running and the size of the area adequately caters for very large crowds and better control of the track area. In addition the ambiance, building and relevant supporting infrastructure at Progress Park seem more superior to that of Victoria Park at this point in time. The students of the four houses at SAASS - Julien, Layne, Nash and Pigott – commenced their spirited march from the school to Progress Park around 12 noon. A number of spectators lined the street to look at the students as they marched and to take photos of the event. The winner of the march past was Julien’s House (red) followed by Nash House (blue), Layne’s House (yellow) and Pigott’s House (green). The sports meet commenced on time and all events ‘ran-off’ smoothly and proficiently. This could be attributed to the amount of hard work that went into planning and organizing the sports combined with the high quality of work undertaken by the staff and the experienced sporting officials on the track. At the beginning of sports, Julien’s House was on 594 ½ points with Pigott on 459 ½, Layne on 349 ½ and Nash on 293 1/3. The order of the houses remained unchanged up to the end of sports with Julien House amassing a record breaking 721 ½ points. Pigott’s House came second with 565 ½ points, Layne House with 401 ½ points and Nash, in fourth place, with 399 1/3 points. This is the third consecutive year that Julien’s House has won the annual SAASS inter-house sporting championship. Although only one record was broken during the sports – 4x100m sub-junior boys – athletes from all four houses gave good accounts of themselves and entertained a very vocal and appreciative crowd. Apart from the big names in Grenada’s track and field like Karrel Collier, Lyndonna Rennie, Kendell Noel and Akim Bowen, some younger athletes demonstrated to all present that they deserved to be in the spotlight also and were prepared to continue the rich athletic legacy of SAASS. The names Whalon Frederick, Kharime Lendore, Donnel Modeste, Travis Modeste, Kelleion Charles and Sherlyn Garraway are some of the names to remember for the future. The following is a list of the outstanding male and female athletes who received awards: Sub-junior boys’ champ – Kharime Lendore (Layne) Junior boys’ champ – Whalon Frederick (Nash) Senior boys’ champ – Kendell Noel (Julien) Sub-junior girls’ champ – Sherlyn Garraway (Julien) Junior girls’ champ – Lisha Williams (Julien) Senior girls’ champ – Latisha Collymore (Layne) VICTOR LUDORUM – Kharime Lendore VICTRIX LUDORUM – Lisha Williams The jerseys worn by teachers and sporting officials on Thursday were provided by the SAASS Alumni Association in New York. They also supplied the medals and trophies for distribution to outstanding athletes. The members of the association are also trying to provide some much needed material assistance to their alma mater which could enable the athletes of the school to perform with merit at the Intercol games scheduled to take place on March 12-13. SAASS has been the only school on the island to hold the longest winning streak (in the male division) at the INTERCOL games. They last held the championship for eight consecutive years (1995 – 2002) and narrowly lost out on another championship to McDonald’s College last year. SAASS is no doubt looking very impressive this year and seems bent on taking back the championship trophy to St. Andrew’s in 2008. Grenadian Connection will like to wish SAASS all the best in their quest for sporting supremacy at the Intercol games on March 12-13.