HIS present size would not suggest that he excelled at sport as a schoolboy.

But after leaving St Anne’s school where he served on the church band, Cornwall Anthony Ford proceeded to make a name for himself at Gaynstead High School at Swallowfield in South East St Andrew.

“Brillo” as he was called while he was on the register during the 1970s, represented the privately operated high school in cricket, emerging as captain of the team; football and table tennis.

A talented opening batsman, spin bowler and part-time wicketkeeper, Ford established himself as a worthy cricketer. However, it was his exploits in football that made him among the most popular students at school during the period, as he was a mamber of the all-conquering Albion Cup squad that dominated the high-standard football league at the time.

Coached by former national footballers Frank Brown and later Geoffrey Maxwell, Ford played right full back, centre half and midfield on a crack football team that included national players David Burgess, Ivor Lodge, Donovan “Che” Wray, Desmond Johnson, along with Anthony Richards and Dennis Stanley.

A meaty player at school, Ford was zippy on the field, often outrunning opposing players, an athletic performance that followed him in his chase of criminals at stages of his career in the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

Ford has remained a fan of sport and often attends football and cricket matches in particular. At one time he was integral to the running of Constant Spring Football Club, mainly while he was posted at the Constant Spring Police Station.

He blames a lack of community organised sport as a reason for many youths turning to crime.

“The youth nowadays don’t grow in any sport, they don’t fly kites, they don’t play cricket… that’s why you can’t have no good sportsmen coming out of the country. Those days you had Allan ‘Skill’ Cole, Richard Austin, Jeffrey Dujon, Jeffrey Mordecai, Peter ‘Dove’ Marston and Herbert ‘Dago’ Gordon, so people had more interest in the clubs. Nowadays, youth don’t even fly kite or spin gig (top) anymore,” he lamented.

He added that the stigma associated with being a resident of an innercity community is also a problem.

“The youth who come from the ghetto get a hard time. People don’t believe in them, they just believe that it’s just pure cruff come from the ghetto. I went to school with so many youth who were born and raised in the ghetto who are now doctors, lawyers and other professionals. Everybody making their little mark and making their contribution, but people do not give ghetto youth any ratings, that a idiot thing,” Ford asserted.