AN in-depth look at the Jamaican landscape illustrates a gigantic void, the absence of professional or other sport academies.

How, then, have we managed to become the sprint capital of the world, the rank outsiders at all international netball tournaments, the smallest nation (1998), until Trinidad and Tobago (2006), to have qualified for the World Cup Finals, the only country to have fielded all 11 starters for the West Indies in a Test match, and so forth?

In most of the developed world the identification, harnessing, development and fine-tuning of elite athletes occur in highly specialised academies. Not so in Jamaica, Land We Love. This process is largely, even if unofficially so, the domain of our school system, especially at the high school level. What an anomaly?

Pragmatism, dynamism and sheer pride has enabled many Jamaican high schools, in many respects, to qualify as surrogate sports academies.

The leading schools in the various sports have all developed programmes and strategies that serve to maintain their positions as the top institutions in particular sports. Why is this done? The answers are numerous, for sure. Most instructive is the developmental value these schools have on the continued success of our national sporting successes.

Looking at all our major sports, it is clear that the talents representing us are almost always drawn from the same core set of schools for the particular sport.

STETHS and Holmhood almost always supply the bulk of our national cricketers. Holmhood, Vere Tech, St Jago and Manchester High are where the majority of our female track athletes were schooled.

The Queen’s School, Holmhood, Denbigh High and Vauxhall High currently supply most of our netballers.

The Under-17 men’s team that qualified for the World Cup Finals in Mexico last year had five players from St George’s College and five from Wolmer’s Boys’ School.

Sadly, we do not see the government, private sector or respective national sporting associations making concerted efforts to aid these schools, or relieve them from what they are so ably doing.

One common thread shared by all these schools is the deliberate, organised efforts made to ensure continuous success in specific sports. These efforts include, but are not limited to, the development of infrastructure, acquisition of “top notch” coaches, strategically developing and harnessing teams for championship efforts, and accessing funding, health care and nutritional support.

Fundamental to these efforts are the schools’ capacity to be consistently among the best. Sustainability is achieved by ensuring carefully orchestrated schemes to replace the annual outputs from the system.

Hence, the value of a well oiled “recruitment programme” — not too dissimilar from what obtains in some of the world’s most respected sport academies.

Notwithstanding, the best efforts of our top schools pale in comparison to the likes of the Arsenal Soccer Schools, located in many countries all over Asia and Africa, as well as Europe; the Qatari-based ASPIRE Academies for excellence, or even the High Performance Cricket Centre in Barbados.

These academies are well-funded business enterprises designed to churn out elite athletes, primarily for profit. The Traffic Academy in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where I had the privilege of working for a month, is a classic example.

Less than two years into their operations, the management there recognised the unprofitability of buying players for forward sales after increasing their value (through training).

Now they accept players for clubs like Manchester United from all over South America and are paid twice for their development. First, there is a charge for the players to attend the academy. A second income, a percentage share of the sale, is derived from any sale of a player to any other club.

This is a concept that is lost on us here in Jamaica. We are still seeing sport as merely recreational, past-time activities for the less privileged.

Take, for example, the investment made by Waterhouse FC and Bridgeport High School in Darren Mattocks to be signed officially to Major League Soccer (Montreal Impact). How much, if any, of the profits will trickle down to these institutions?

Sport is a mega business providing thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities. Just look closely at the models the MVP and Racers Track Clubs represent.

These clubs have coaches, medical doctors, physiotherapists, masseuses, chefs, security personnel, publicists and lawyers, just to name a few.

Maybe there exists an opportunity for established clubs to engage schools to jointly explore partnerships for the development of such academies within the schools.

The time is nigh for us to evolve beyond merely winning national championships and trophies — a most unprofitable endeavour.

Journalists, coaches and other sport aficionados from all parts of the world, particularly the United States and Europe, are generally very kind in lauding our programmes and successes in comparison to what obtains in their countries.

This parallel is most often made for track and field during the annual Boys and Girls Championships. Football also comes in for much credit, largely from international scouts and coaches who from time to time share in our country’s football.

Can you fathom what they would have to say should we be able to create world-class academies for our young sportsmen and sportswomen in the different sports?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Andrew Edwards is a teacher/football coach at St Elizabeth Technical High School and an assistant National Under-20 coach.