Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony yesterday urged hundreds of secondary school students to show discipline as they compete for supremacy in the 2007 inter-secondary schools FUTSAL (football) tournament.

Anthony was speaking at the opening ceremony of the tournament at the National Gymnasium yesterday afternoon. He made the comments in light of the grumbling noises that echoed across the stadium as the Minister was speaking.

“I can tell that some of you here are more disciplined than others; some of you sit and listen carefully while others choose to be distinctive with noise,” he recognised at the beginning of his brief remarks.

Anthony told the young people gathered in the gymnasium that discipline was one in the key aspects of teamwork and success was hardly ever achieved without discipline.

“Sports help to teach discipline, if you are not disciplined it will affect teamwork,” he said, while urging the organisers not to keep the students out of their houses too late.

He said that was one of the bad habits that the ministry was working to correct.

The minister said that the National Sports Commission (NSC) has a mandate when dealing with events such as the futsal tournament to ensure that the event does not run too late into the night.

“There is now a rule in the NSC that we don’t want schoolchildren out too late. I hope the organisers will keep that rule and get the children home safely,” Anthony advised while issuing a warning against activities such as gambling.

According to Anthony, there was an increase in activities such as gambling in schools. He said that he hoped the children did not use the opportunity to play in the tournament as an opportunity to get involved in illicit activities.

“I want to urge those of you who are disciplined to encourage others to not get involved in illicit activities,” Anthony warned.

Despite his strong admonitions, the minister recognized the fact that the tournament had the potential to expand into a true national event with the participation of schools from all quarters of the country.

“I truly hope that the tournament can get bigger by next year. We see this getting bigger and bigger each year,” he said.