‘We need to hear from you’
• Jamaica College takes grievance with ISSA to sport minister• Gives ISSA five days to respond over ineligible overseas athletes
Published:Thursday | February 22, 2024 | 12:11 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
THE INTER-SECONDARY Schools Sports Association (ISSA) is remaining mum on the continued attempt from Jamaica College (JC) to have a decision to render two of its athletes ineligible to compete at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships next month overturned.
Two Ghanaian student-athletes, Evans Tetteh and Dominic Amponsah, are ineligible to represent the school at the March 19-23 showpiece, with JC’s understanding that they were not registered at the school by September 30 of 2023.
But JC is contending that finding, saying that while the students were still overseas on September 30, they had been registered before the deadline and are bona fide students at the school, having already caught up with their studies.
ISSA disagreed, and JC has responded by writing an eight-page letter to Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange.
The letter, signed by Lance Hylton, chairman of the JC Board of Management, outlined the school’s position and its disagreement with some of the processes involved in ISSA’s decision-making.
“We are now just a few weeks away from the 2024 Boys and Girls’ Championships, and these young men, like many of our own athletes who go overseas, are on a scholarship, hoping to better their lives. There is nothing improper about that. You have seen details of the millions of scholarship funds provided by well-meaning sponsors to support these 15-year-old boys,” read the letter in part.
OF ‘INTERNATIONAL CONCERN’
According to JC, the situation is of “international concern” and, therefore, warrants the intervention of the minister.
“We are copying to the Minister of Sports, seeking her intervention with you, as the discrimination against the Ghanaian students has now become an international concern which could have repercussions against Jamaican athletes seeking scholarships overseas as well,” the letter read.
The letter is also demanding an ISSA response within five days.
“We look forward to your urgent and positive response. Given the urgency of the matter and the limited time left to explore other options, we need to hear from you by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, or we will assume that your position is unchanged, and we will explore other options which we would prefer not to exercise,” the letter ended.
Yesterday, Keith Wellington, president of ISSA, said his team had “no comment” on the matter.
According to JC, there has been no breach of the rules, and ISSA has misrepresented its own handbook.
“Contrary to what both members like us, and the public at large, have been led to believe, there is no rule in the ISSA Rules & Regulations (Revised 2023) Handbook that requires overseas athletes to be landed in Jamaica by September 30 of a school year in order to be eligible to participate in events during that year.”
According to the letter, ISSA would have been aware that the students were registered since JC had sent an enrolment data sheet on September 18, 2023.