PBHSOB ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

OPEN LETTER

Dear Old Boy

The following letter has recently been published by Pretoria Boys High School.

With permission obtained by the school, the Pretoria Boys High School Old Boys’ Association has found it necessary to distribute the open letter below to Old Boys of Pretoria Boys High School.

Open Letter regarding Sports at Pretoria Boys High School

In light of the past two week’s results and some reaction we received, I would like to update the current Old Boys, supporters and parents of Pretoria Boys High about sport at the school and I would like to address some of the issues raised this week on different social media platforms.

Pretoria Boys High is a school that prides itself on the fact that we, as a school, deliver an incredible product to society. The boys that attend the school are exposed to many different facets of life, including sport, culture and most importantly, top class academic programmes. Ultimately the core ” business” of the school is to equip all our boys with the best academic qualification possible and this, to us, is non-negotiable in every sense. We believe that our teachers are of the best and that they are people whom we can be extremely proud. These same teachers are also involved in an amazing pastoral care programme where every single boy is looked after and cared for.

We are concerned about the unrealistic expectations of some Old Boys and some parents about the performance of a single rugby team in the school. We, as a school, understand the fact that rugby is seen as the only and definitive measurement of a schools well-being. For us this is a huge problem and we would like to highlight why this is the case.

At Boys High we cater for every boy to participate in a team in many different sporting codes. We provide coaching for every team and the emphasis is to improve every boy’s ability as much as possible. We do not concentrate only on the A-team of every age group as many other schools do. There are very few schools in Gauteng, or even in South Africa, that can boast the same number of teams in the different sporting codes. Some schools who have a comparable number of boys in the school community have half the teams and half the sporting codes that we offer.

The argument that we have to excel in every sport because of our numbers is a double edged sword. The fact that we have around 300 boys per grade would make a person believe that there should be an abundance of sporting talent. However, this is not necessarily the case.

One of the core beliefs at Boys High is that we do not offer bursaries / scholarships or financial incentives to entice a boy to come to the school. Every boy in Boys High is there by choice and this is something on which we are not prepared to compromise. Other schools have a different view on the recruiting of players and this has led to some of the top sportsmen, who would have chosen Boys High as a school of choice, being recruited to go to other schools. This is something that is affecting us on many levels and needs to be put into perspective.

If we look at the five traditional sports that most of the boys schools offer, we as a school are doing exceptionally well. We do not like to look at ranking systems as we believe they are part of the problem. Sport is becoming a commodity to market schools and we have an ethical problem with that. But to use it in this context, I feel that I can illustrate our point.

If we start with our summer sports – Cricket, Water Polo and Basketball. In all these sporting codes we are ranked in the top five in the country and it is interesting to note that these codes have not been targeted by schools as sport to excel in or to offer bursaries / scholarships. These boys are competing on a level playing field and our standard and number of teams are something to be really proud of. The cricket team was ranked second behind a school in Johannesburg who has targeted cricket as their sport of choice and is currently offering a number of bursaries to attract players. Water Polo and Basketball are in the top five in the country and were invited to participate in the top festivals.

The effect of bursaries and scholarships on our winter sports has become ever more apparent. More cause for concern is the lack of coverage of the one sport and the perceived importance of the other. Our 1st Hockey team beat the number-one ranked team in the country on Saturday and recorded an incredible 11-1 victory over St Albans on Wednesday. I couldn’t find more than five comments on the different social media platforms about these performances. The hockey side is ranked in the top five on one list and third on two other lists. Do they get the accolades they deserve from the Old Boys? What is very interesting about this is the fact that not many schools offer bursaries to hockey players. The coaches involved in our hockey include five staff members and Old Boys who are currently studying. No professional coach is employed at the moment.

This brings us to the burning issue of the rugby at Boys High. It is a very emotional and sometimes very heated topic of conversation and I would like to highlight some aspects of the debate. Rugby is the sport that is targeted as a marketing tool and therefore schools are offering bursaries and scholarships. Top players are recruited even in grade six and are lured to schools using financial incentives. Some schools will openly admit to the fact that they have a “double intake”. The first is in grade 8 (or Form I) and the second is a very targeted intake of top rugby players at the end of grade 10 (or Form III). This is one possible reason why results in U/14 and U/15 can change in a short period of time. The effect of recruiting players to a school has a ripple effect through an age group. The A-team is getting stronger with these new players and the lower teams are therefore also ” stronger” due to the fact that the average player will now have to move to a lower team. We are not prepared to indulge in this practice. As a well-known Old Boy put it : “We are not prepared to sell our soul for a win”.

When it comes to the question of coaches and coaching, we as a school community need to keep various considerations in mind. As a public school we need to be able to justify the way we spend the school fees that our parents are paying. The issue of a professional coach to coach the 1st Rugby Team has been raised on numerous occasions and the current view is that we believe that it is not educationally justified to pressurize our boys to win because a professional person’s job is in on the line because of results. If you employ a professional coach the school will have to be in a position to give him the players he feels are needed to achieve the targets set out for him. If the intake of players is not good enough, does that mean that
the school will have to go and “buy” the players? If the school is not offering bursaries, are you not setting the coach up for failure?

So what has the school done to try and address these issues? The school took a decision two years ago to appoint a director of rugby. The idea behind this appointment was to put certain processes in place to make sure that we as a school will be in a position to make sure that the players and coaches are equipped to perform to the best of their ability. This is by no means an easy task and the programme will unfortunately take time to work. The school also made the decision to appoint suitably qualified staff members to coach the different age groups and especially the A-teams. These teachers all hold official coaching qualifications. This was done in such a way that we can make sure that the processes that are put in place will succeed. I am sure that it will work if we have the community supporting us, but it will take time.

The second step was to appoint specialist coaches to assist our staff in the different age groups. Two of the coaches that we have appointed have been involved in rugby in the highest possible level. With the long term programme in place the decision was made to ensure that the junior groups are looked after in such a way that they will have their skills advanced in an accelerated programme. The boys coming to Boys High have not always been exposed to rugby at the highest level and we have to train them in a very short period of time. As any person will know, this is not an easy task and the coaches are spending a large proportion of the coaching time to instill the basics of rugby while still trying to make sure that we are
competitive.

At the beginning of the third term in 2015, the school went on a “marketing drive” to get some promising rugby players into the school. This has not happened in the past but it was a very successful venture. The results of this exercise and the allocation of the coaches are already visible in the very encouraging results of the U/14 and U/15 age groups. We believe that if we can sustain this programme, we will be able to improve the overall rugby prowess of the school. This will take time and we need to trust the system.

The big question still remaining is whether these initiatives will be sufficient for us to beat some of our traditional rivals? It is impossible to answer that question but what I am sure about is the fact that we will produce proud Boys High boys who are loyal to the badge and who will make the school proud when they leave after five years.

The biggest challenge we face is to make people understand that this school is great in everything it does, whether it be academic, culture, music or sport. We are extremely proud of the type of boy we deliver after five years and we believe that we can say that we are staying true to the values and ethos of a school that is 115 years old. We trust that all those associated with the school will support us in maintaining a proud tradition of educational excellence.

PRETORIA BOYS HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS OFFICE

Regards,

Thomas Rundle
PBHSOB ASSOCIATION CHAIRMAN