School sports should be boosted

IF Papua New Guinea’s sports revolution is to truly take off and produce the champions and top shelf performances that the people crave for, then just having the facilities and good coaching is only part of the answer.
Having a sound foundation is key to producing a generation of athletes that will have not just the physical attributes in terms of fitness and skills to compete with the world’s best but also have the ingrained desire and attitude needed to make the leap from the average to the elite.
The 16th Pacific Games just concluded in Samoa in an indication of needs to be done.
PNG finished second behind New Caledonia with 38 gold, 57 silver and 35 bronze medals.
New Caledonia closed off with 76 gold, 55 silver and 51 bronze. The French Territory dominated swimming. PNG collected mostly from the track events.
In 2015 Team PNG won 88 gold medals to top the medal tally when PNG hosted the 15th Pacific Games.
Mission accomplished for Team PNG. Everyone gave each other a deserved pat on the back for sneaking into the second spot. Now the focus should be on the 2023 Games in Solomon Islands.
We have the facilities (already from the 2015 Games) and technical expertise has been set up, the focus should be on building sports from the ground up.
There is still so much to do in terms of strengthening sports and developing the next crop of athletes and stars.
One of the most obvious ways to doing this is by tapping into schools.
Schools have well-organised systems that train students to follow rules and to work as a team while pushing individuals to excel.
It is a natural transition from classroom to play ground.
In PNG, unfortunately the school sports system is not as well-orgainsed across the board.
While various sports run their junior programmes, these competitions are usually run according to the code’s calendar and administrative plans.
It is a fact that there is no established school competition in Port Moresby. And this has been the case for as long as rugby has been played in the nation’s capital.
One of the draw backs to focusing a lot of time and energy to running school competitions is that not all the talent is in the schools.
Regardless of the unique situation PNG is in, there should be a strong push by the Government through the Education Department, to have school sports as an integral part of the curriculum.
All national federations must ensure all clubs affiliated to them must have a development plan for junior players.
There’s a lot of talent out in the settlements, villages and in the suburbs and these kids don’t necessarily go to school so while having a school competition is a good thing, we need to think about those outside of the system.
All respective national teams must have a competitive junior or development team ready to fill in the gaps when senior players retire.
This can and will complement the ‘sports revolution’ that PNG aims to meet and be competitive in competitions such as the Pacific Games and other regional tournaments.