MGM Vice Principal Explains Historical Win

Four years ago, Rajeshwar Prasad could not have imagined that Mahatma Gandhi Memorial High School (MGM) would sit at the top of secondary school athletics in Fiji.

The current vice principal and head of sports and academics had ambitions for his new school when he joined back in May 2018, but said he didn’t foresee the remarkable success MGM managed to achieve in just a few short years. Mr Prasad said 2020 was the year he considered a plan to invest in a fully-fledged athletics programme. But COVID-19 came and so the next year, 2021, he said that he put the idea forward and eventually gained the full support of school management and the Gujarat Education Board.

School closures, however, stalled those plans.

2022 was the first opportunity for MGM, Mr Prasad explained, to field a competitive and winning team at the Fiji Finals.

That year, the school became blue ribbon champions for both boys and girls.

In 2023, MGM won eight gold in total.

This year, the school won 17 gold overall and its first ever Girls Division title.

Gujarat Education Board president, Jitesh Patel said he’s not surprised by the school’s success. “I knew it was coming and it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone else who’s been following the Games and knows the kind of athletes we have at MGM.”

Changing the narrative

Historically, MGM has mostly been known as a ‘soccer school’ with a reputation of academic excellence.

Mr Prasad decided that he wanted to take ownership of changing, if not, challenging this narrative because of the potential he saw in sports.

A five-year plan (2020-2025) was initially set up at MGM to develop student athletes, and through a partnership with Royals Athletics Club, the school has achieved a better result each time it has competed at the Coca Cola Games. While financing or “sponsorship” is an important ingredient in driving the school’s progress in athletics, it does not fully explain they’ve performed better than some of the traditional sporting schools in Fiji, Mr Prasad said.

He said “anything was possible” for his athletes because of the Board, teachers, coaches and the athletes’ families, pitching in to provide the necessary support, whether it was training, meals, sponsored kits, transportation and camps for the athletes at the school in Vatuwaqa.

In fact, Mr Prasad saw athletics as a way to provide opportunities for deserving students to go even further in the sport, such as former blue ribbon and Fiji Secondary School long jump record holder Waisale Inoke and long-distance runner Vilorina Naibena, who both attended MGM, and are on scholarship in the US.

“If you look at soccer, the kids do not have any outlet beyond secondary school,” Mr Prasad said. “When it comes to athletics, the two athletes that I had in 2022 are

I knew it was coming and it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone else who’s been following the Games and knows the kind of athletes we have at MGM Jitesh Patel Gujarat Education Board president

now are in the US studying on scholarship.

“So you can see they have somewhere to go and lots of ways to secure their future.

“And they’re making a name for themselves.”

Mr Prasad also dismissed claims of so-called “poaching” at MGM. “It doesn’t operate that way,” he told Fiji Sun.

“You can get the best athlete, but if you don’t have the [right] training programme, you would never be able to make a name for yourself.

“Winning a gold, or silver or bronze comes down to just a fraction of a second and your training programme can affect that.” Mr Patel said accusations of “poaching” by some were off base. “The word poaching is like stealing someone who is already competing at the Cokes for another school, and you steal them, pay them money and entice them.

“But at the end of the day, we should realise that everyone has a choice; the choice that the child and the parent make together. “Money can’t buy everything, and some have a choice in where they want to go to school.”

He said it was not uncommon for schools to approach and recruit up-and-coming athletes and that joining MGM did not guarantee success or winning.