18 years of sport with Sylvester Morris
For the past 18 years Sylvester Morris has been shepherding young students of the Savanna-la-Mar Primary School through sport.
Yesterday was no exception.
When the Observer West caught up with the physical education teacher, a graduate of Mico College, he was busy taking a group of Grade five students through a number of exercises which culminated with a game he calls Cat and Mouse.
“Behind the line everybody…what are you going to do?”
The students respond in a strident chorus: “Listen!”
Morris then starts to explain the use of the hands and feet, as well as the ears for “listening to instructions that are given”.
He leads the children through a stretching drill, after which he transits into the game which sees the childen splitting up into two even queues behind a line on the playfield.
A ball is placed across another line about 30 metres away.
Morris then blows his whistle, summoning the two persons at the front of each respective rows to race to the other line and touch a ball that was earlier placed there. They then fall to the rear of their particular lines as fast as their tiny legs can carry them. This is repeated until every student in each line has touched the ball. The first line that completes this manoeuver is declared the winner.
The enthusiastic boys and girls appear oblivious of their surroundings, obviously completely consumed in the activity.
It’s clear that they do not want to return to their other classes even after an instructive blast from Morris’s whistle signals an end to the session.
The physical education teacher explained that he was installed in that position since he started out at the school 18 years ago. The previous physical education teacher left as soon as he came along and he was asked to “fill the gap”. Since then he has been at the helm of the school’s physical education department.
Morris, who coaches netball, cricket and football at the school, stressed the importance of physical education citing that it “enhances overall development”.
“Physical education should not be only at school level but should continue throughout the life span of the individual,” Morris expressed.
