Balancing academics and squash, Larissa Wiltshire gets an A-grade
By Akeem Greene
National Squash Player Larissa Wiltshire is by all means living a dream as one of Guyana’s top junior squash players and scholar. The Wiltshire name in squash should be no surprise as the young star’s father Garfield, sister Akeila and brother Shomari are all formidable players in their own right.
Outstanding Achievement! Wiltshire displays her plaque at the GOA Awards in April (Marceano Narine Photo)
The 18-year-old is winning both on and off the court, as added to her success with squash, her academic achievements are simply stupendous. At the recent Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE), the Queen’s College student was placed among the top performers at the examinations; securing six grades ones, which mirrors her performance in the previous year.
It was not only at CAPE the aspiring dentist made headlines, as in the 2014 she secured 17 Gade Ones at CXC. More so, at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) in 2009 she was deemed the country’s top student, securing 565 marks out of a possible 592 to pip 18,612 other students.
In an interview with Guyana Times Sport after hearing of recent accomplishments, she expressed elation, stating: “I am actually very happy and excited about my accomplishment,
I am thankful to my parents for their continued support and encouragement as well as my school and lessons teachers and my friends.”
She added: “I studied a lot and even had a twelve-week study plan where I studied a subject per week for the twelve-week period in reverse order of how they appeared on my timetable for like 3-4 hours a night.”
Wiltshire, who was joint recipient of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) award for outstanding achievement in sports for winning the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa, a feat she achieved with Taylor Fernandes, was quizzed on her view of persons writing numerous subjects at the regional exams.
“I wrote 17 subjects for CSEC and was unaffected by the amount of subjects, I still played squash, was on Facebook way too much; so I think students should be allowed to write as many as they want because it’s their life”, she responded.
To some it seems bewildering how she as a player has been able to balance both areas successfully but Wiltshire explained that it’s about being disciplined.
“Well we [squash] had team training that started in March so I just studied after that and sometimes even in school but that was just a few times because it’s hard to focus in school when you are as busy as I am”, the Caribbean under-19 champion said.
The daughter of High Court Judge Justice Roxane George revealed that there is no added pressure to perform whether it is squash or academics: “There is no pressure to be the best at squash, I mean that is what every athlete hopes for but there is just encouragement to do your best.”
The young woman who will be heading to the University of the West Indies (Mona Campus) to study dentistry come September, had a message for all persons who wish to walk in her footsteps: “I think people should just work hard and try to do their best, they shouldn’t try to be somebody else because it’s at that point when you might end up feeling defeated if you don’t meet that standard”.
Wiltshire said that she hopes to continue representing Guyana on the senior squash team in the future. ([email protected])
