The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THANK God it’s Friday.

Thank God it’s also Thanksgiving.

This is a good time for all of us to reflect and give God thanks for his bountiful blessings that he has bestowed upon us each day.

While we are still thankful that we are alive, I just want to take this opportunity to pause and say thanks to God for the contribution that the late Tom ‘The Bird’ Grant made to the development of sports in the country. As we mourn his passing, we pray that his legacy will linger on in our hearts.

As we thank God for today, we express our gratitude for the many sporting activities that are passing through our country. We are grateful to the organisers of the Division One College Basketball Tournament that is presently being played at Atlantis on Paradise Island. We pray that the visiting players will have a harm-free tournament.

We also welcome the many young players from around the world who are flocking here this weekend to start participating in the Gppmbay Splash ITF Junior Tennis Tournament that is slated to begin on Saturday with the qualifying rounds at the National Tennis Center. May our own junior players secure a level of success as they face their visiting opponents. And we pray for the safety of all of the participants in the Speed Week as they traverse though our streets and in particular in the area of Arawak Cay over the next week. May we show good sportsmanship and citizenship to the visitors who are here plunging huge monies into our economy.

As we talk about sportsmanship, we ask for God’s divine intervention on the melee that disrupted the start of the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association’s basketball season at the DW Davis Gym on Monday.

Without having all of the facts, we do pray that calmer heads will prevail and everybody involved will look at the bigger picture, which is providing a sound and solid proof for all of the players to be able to display their skills in an atmosphere that is condusive to all.

Both the teams and the fans were looking forward to the start of basketball and while it’s a known fact that the proceedings that led to the melee is something that should have been addressed for quite some time - over crowding without the adequate police protection.

In some ways, it’s a good thing that the incident happened when it did because now the organisers can take the proper measures to ensure that there is no repeat occurance whenever the league resumes play.

The referees association has agreed to withdraw their services until a number of issues have been resolved. Let’s hope that in resolving the matter, measures are taken to protect the referees and at the same time ensure that the fans are confined to their seats in the stands.

It sets a bad precedent when the players are not allowed to play without the interruption from the fans.

In moving forward, let’s pray that these types of incidents will be kept to a minimum, but at the same token some disciplinary actions will be meted out to the culpits to ensure that those types of things will help to curtail any further acts of violence in our sporting arenas.

Thank God for our Thanksgiving period.