Nuku’alofa: If there’s a place in Heaven for the most dedicated athletes, there must be reserved room for Tongan small and short “midget” boys and girls.
Believe you me or not; there’s no justice running against a boy or girl of your age group who is two-feet taller; it’s neither fun throwing the shot-put against a kid whose been raised on hamburgers and chips (french-fries).
Pitted against their taller counterparts, being “short” is definitely a disadvantage, as evidenced in this the third day of high school track and field competitions at Teufaiva Stadium. These minnows are a joy to watch competing amongst much taller and bigger athletes including schools from ‘Eua, Ha’apai, and Vava’u outer islands.
But “small” pupils’ devotion to whatever track-and-field event they are competing in, by today, they began to fade into their school’s cheering section. Taller athletes have the competitive advantage in most of the track races; shorties are totally shutout in the hurdles, for example.
School Size Commands Athleticism Superiority
It is now clear that the size of a school student-body can pretty much command a pool of the taller athletes for the track events, and also larger bodies for the field events. In the girls events, for example, Queen Sālote College has the most number of students.
In the boys events, Tupou College has the commanding edge. They are both Free Wesleyan Church sponsored. Tonga College (all boys) and Tonga High School (coeds, both government sponsored) would come in second. St. Andrews High School (Anglican), and Tailulu College (Church of Tonga) do have a fair number of tall and bigger coeds.
The missing piece of the puzzle is Mormon-sponsored Liahona High School and Sainehā High in Vava’u. They have the second largest student-body of both boys and girls. Their competitive athletes usually provide a contrasting color in the motley display of school uniforms and banners, and competitive athletes as well.
But they’re absent for the second year in a row. Prompted by school-boy brawls problems, Liahona administrators are egregiously depriving their students the greatest inter-school festivity in Tonga: Keeping their athletes home has not discouraged their boys from engaging in school-boy brawls.
(Sione A. Mokofisi is a Tongan syndicated columnist. He is Director of English, Journalism & Business Management at Tonga International Academy, Haveluloto, Tongatapu. He holds a MBA from the University of Phoenix-Arizona, and a B.S. degree from Brigham Young University-Hawaii. But his opinions do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of this Website. E-mail address: s1mokofisi@yahoo.com).