WESTERN SPORTS - Green Island honours stalwarts

Claudia Gardner, Assignment Coordinator

Green Island High honoured several sporting stalwarts during a ceremony at the school last week. The honourees were cited for their contribution to the development of sports in the parish of Hanover.

Among the awardees were track and field official Lesman 'Randy' Kerr; 2011 World Youth 100-metre champion Odail Todd; physical education (PE) teacher Patricia Morgan-Symister; football coach Dwayne Watson; sportswoman extraordinaire Esperanza Johnson; athletics coach Michael McIntosh; football coach Lloyd Sterling; multifaceted sportsman Orrett Symister; netballer Elaine Dickson-Crooks; track and field coach and PE teacher Ava-Gaye Holmes; as well as track and netball official Everton 'Paul' Lawrence.

Kerr was lauded as having carried out his duties as a track official with accuracy. He was a part of the Western Track and Field Association team of officials who ensured that the 2011 Carifta Games at the Montego Bay Sports Complex was a success.

Since the mid-1990s, he has also officiated at the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Boys and Girls' championships and Gibson Relays in Kingston.

Praises

A past student of Green Island High School, Todd, who hails from Cave Valley in Hanover, was praised as an ambassador for the institution, a stalwart in his field of endeavour and an inspiration to persons in Hanover. He was the 100-metre World Youth champion in 2011.

Todd's former high school coach Michael McIntosh, who guided him to his World Championship title, was hailed as a transformational agent who possesses one of the highest levels of athletics certification in the world. McIntosh, who hails from Jericho in Hanover, was also coach for the national athletics team to the World Junior Championships in France, 2011.

Along with Kerr, Todd and McIntosh, Esperanza Johnson was described as a stalwart. Johnson, who, is an elder at the March Town Seventh-day Adventist Church, is a certified coach for sporting disciplines such as volleyball, netball and cricket and was also a certified umpire, a football coach, as well as the first female referee in western Jamaica.

Johnson was also the winner of the Lucea Cross the Harbour competition and Caribbean triathlon champion in the 1990's and has worked as a sports officer with the Institute of Sports for more than 16 years.