Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
Harbour View coach, Lenworth 'Teacher' Hyde, shares a smile with students from the Sunrise Basic School during his club's physical education class at the Harbour View Mini-Stadium on Wednesday. Helping out 'Teacher' is his son, Lenworth Hyde Jr. Students from Neptune Basic School walk past in the foreground. - contributed
SIX BASIC schools were made privy to learning the art of football on Wednesday as the Harbour View Football Club rejuvenated its efforts at getting into the community.
Over the past eight years Harbour View have been reaching out to the community through its infants, organising an annual Labour Day community fair, a football festival, a health fair and a concert.
However, starting on Wednesday, the 'Stars of the East' embarked on a programme aimed at teaching physical education in schools and six - Neptune, Sunrise, Seaview, Happy Venture, St. Boniface and St. Marks Basic schools, are the recipients.
According to a press release prior to Wednesday's start, the club saw the need for that kind of service in the basic schools within the community because mostly women teach at the basic level.
With that being the case, there is not much emphasis on physical education at that level and there also is not the technical know-how available either with no real physical education teachers available.
One of the other motivating factor in getting the programme under way is said to be the absence of playing fields in the schools.
Introduction to football
The physical education classes will be held by Harbour View's managers, coaches and senior players and will be held, as was the case on Wednesday, at the club's Mini-Stadium, 'the Compound'. It will teach what the club terms an "introduction to basic football".
On Wednesday, an initial group of about 250 five-year-old children participated from eight of the community's basic schools.
Harbour View's sponsors, GlaxoSmith Kline Caribbean Limited, Wisynco and the Jamaica Biscuit Company, got on board by ensuring that the little ones were properly nourished.
GlaxoSmith Kline provided Lucozade and Ribena, while Wisynco brought Wata and Likkle Bigga to the table.
The budding stars of tomorrow weren't just treated to the lessons of the game, they were also equipped with adidas head and wrist bands.
The outreach is scheduled to continue once a month where follow up visits will be held with the children and reiterate physical education techniques to teachers so they can continue to impart the knowledge the club holds.
