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Saturday, July 19, 2025

Sando Boys’ RC celebrates Junior Panorama success

by

164 days ago
20250205

Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Se­nior Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Af­ter four years of per­se­ver­ance and six months of in­tense train­ing, San Fer­nan­do Boys’ RC erupt­ed in cel­e­bra­tion at their school yes­ter­day, hoist­ing their gleam­ing gold tro­phy high, hav­ing se­cured first place in the Ju­nior Panora­ma Cham­pi­onship at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Sun­day.

Led by their ded­i­cat­ed arranger, Ly­dia Seecha­ran, the boys moved in uni­son, their voic­es blend­ing with the rhythm of their in­stru­ments as they pas­sion­ate­ly belt­ed out Shad­ow’s icon­ic song and their win­ning tune, Din­go­lay.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Seecha­ran said the vic­to­ry was es­pe­cial­ly sweet, as some of the play­ers had on­ly touched a steel­pan for the very first time last Ju­ly.

“They gave up their Ju­ly/Au­gust hol­i­days, their Christ­mas va­ca­tion and their af­ter­noons to dili­gent­ly prac­tise, which paid off in the end,” Seecha­ran said.

She re­vealed that the team faced sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges along the way, in­clud­ing a heart­break­ing set­back just days be­fore the fi­nals when one of their young mu­si­cians had to un­der­go surgery.

De­spite the emo­tion­al toll, the group pushed for­ward.

Seecha­ran said 2025 marked the fourth time San Fer­nan­do Boys’ RC had com­pet­ed in the Ju­nior Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion, steadi­ly climb­ing the ranks with each at­tempt. Their jour­ney saw them place eighth, then fifth, and lat­er third be­fore fi­nal­ly seiz­ing the cov­et­ed cham­pi­onship ti­tle.

Re­flect­ing on the jour­ney, she said, “Some of these boys had nev­er played pan be­fore, but they reached this lev­el. Hard work cre­ates op­por­tu­ni­ties. On stage, any­thing can hap­pen. They were small, the youngest on­ly six, and they learned to ex­e­cute, play in time, and move as a unit. I tell them to play pan with their hearts through their hands, and it’s a mes­sage I want them to car­ry for­ward in life.”

She said the com­pe­ti­tion al­so deep­ened their un­der­stand­ing of lo­cal mu­sic cul­ture.

“It teach­es us who Shad­ow was and what he con­tributed to our cul­ture. The boys now un­der­stand his mu­sic and his im­pact,” she said.

The young pan play­ers ex­pressed joy at their vic­to­ry.

Ryan Shep­pard said, “I feel proud.”

Je­re­mi­ah Jack­son thanked Seecha­ran for guid­ing them through the months of train­ing.

Dar­ius Branker said, “It was a team ef­fort, and I want to thank Miss Seecha­ran.”

Kaleb Pe­ter said, “I am proud of what we achieved to­geth­er.”

Vice prin­ci­pal Don­na Solomon told Guardian Me­dia the en­tire school shared in the cel­e­bra­tion.

“To­day we cel­e­brat­ed this vic­to­ry af­ter so many years of prepar­ing for Panora­ma. Our boys and our city cel­e­brat­ed. Teach­ers ac­knowl­edged the play­ers and thanked them for rep­re­sent­ing the school.

“This was the re­sult of the ded­i­ca­tion of teach­ers and our arranger. She pre­pared the boys with a train­ing camp dur­ing the Au­gust va­ca­tion and in­tro­duced them to the win­ning theme. Paria in­vest­ed in us, and we are grate­ful for the sup­port.”

Paria rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ner­is­sa Feveck al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed the school.

“On be­half of the board, man­age­ment, and em­ploy­ees, we ex­tend our con­grat­u­la­tions. We are proud of the cham­pi­onship they won at Ju­nior Panora­ma,” she said.

St Mar­garet’s Boys’ An­gli­can placed sec­ond while Febeau Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School fin­ished third.


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