THERE can't be too many 62 year olds in Bermuda who get up at 4.45 a.m. every weekday to venture to the gym and go for a run - but Anthony Roberts is one of them.

As Bermuda's Director of Youth, Sport &d Recreation since 1971, Mr. Roberts makes a point of practising what he preaches and he wants to spread the message that feeling fit gives a natural high that can be experienced every day.

The son of a Somerset Cup Match captain, Mr. Roberts grew up surrounded by sport, played it, studied it and has enjoyed a long career in sports administration.

Recognition for his efforts came last week, when he was named one of the 2003 Sports Ethics Fellows of the Institute for International Sport.

Mr. Roberts was named on a list that included four-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, three-time Olympic gold medallist Marion Jones as well as ABC and ESPN broadcaster Robin Roberts.

The Institute selects Sports Ethics Fellows to recognise those individuals who consistently demonstrate an interest in promoting the ideals of ethics and fair play in sport and society.

Reporter JONATHAN KENT and photographer ARTHUR BEAN caught up with Mr. Roberts for a chat in the Ministry offices in Church Street.

Q: How did the honour from the Institute of International Sport come about and was it a surprise?

A: It was a complete surprise. I got a letter in mid-February saying I'd been nominated for this fellowship award. I put it aside and then I got a call from the IIS saying they needed the information. I was shocked on Friday morning when I saw it in the paper.

Q: Was that the way you first found out you'd won the award?

A: Yes. And the only thing that made me believe it was that the paper had quoted Dan Doyle (founder of the IIS and a former basketball player). Dan was a guest of our Ministry at our conference of sport this year when he delivered two keynote addresses. After that, I went weak.

But to God be the glory. You get your accolades, but I just see myself doing the work that's set out for me to do. I don't see what I do as a job, it's more like a hobby. This is what I knew I was going to do from nine years of age.

My parents were heavily involved in sport, especially my father Anthony Sonny Roberts. My mother was a cricketer and my father was president of Somerset Bridge Recreation Club and he was also captain of Somerset Cup Match team.

Plus I had two teachers in school who really encouraged me. In Sandys Secondary School there was Mr. Tucker and the other was a West Indian guy, his name was Mr. Thomas.

For the past 22 years with the Government Sports Awards programme, I've enjoyed seeing people who are out there in the community giving up their time to develop programmes for our young people getting their rewards. When I see them get their awards, I'm touched by what I see - now I know what they go through!

Q: How do you feel about being on the same list as sporting greats like Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones?

A: Well, Robin Roberts is the one I really connect with. I remember her coming in and covering sport for ABC and I've followed her career and seen it blossom. Now she is the ultimate in mature sports broadcasting.

Q: Are there some responsibilities that come with being a Sports Ethics Fellow?

A: I think they were more interested in my views on sportsmanship. And that's been my mantra, the teaching of life values through sport. Learning how to win and how to lose gracefully, keeping within the boundaries of the rules, respecting your peers and those in authority, carrying yourself with dignity and honour no matter what the circumstances are.

Sport to me is the laboratory for life where we can teach these skills to young people and we hopefully turn out the kind of citizens we would like to see.

The lessons of sport are like the lessons of life. You're constantly competing in your job, wherever you are. But it's how you present yourself and how you become socially mature enough to have confidence that you can do the job, building on your experience in sport. If I had not had the experiences I have had in sport, I don't believe I would be where I am today.

Part of that platform of development is somebody believing in you for something you could do in sport.

Q: What are the biggest challenges facing sport today?

A: Drugs, spectator behaviour, the resources we have, administration, coaching - are we coaching to win or preparing for life?

Then there is sportsmanship. We are planning to have a National Sportmanship Day. When was the last time you saw two teams shaking hands at the end of a match? That doesn't happen much any more. A lack of respect for the rules, attacking officials. I never saw anything like that in my time.

I think these are the influences that television and the mass media have brought. You look at ice hockey - that's one sport I won't watch because they seem to play up the fights between the players. What message are we conveying to young people? The table is set for us to go back to some of the values in sport that seem to have been put aside in favour of winning. What is sport really about? Is it about winning or developing character?

Q: Drugs is a societal problem as well as a sport problem, don't you think?

A: That's right and if you accept it's a societal problem, then you accept that it's going to affect sport. We spearheaded the Bermuda Council for Drug Free Sport five years. During that time, I think it's been accepted as one of the ways young people can be dissuaded from the drug culture and how it ruins their ability to reach the level of skill they have.

We are supported by the national associations. Sometimes though we hear people say, 'We are losing players'. But life is about options. Whatever road we choose, ther's a choice to be made. The programme allows for people to go into treatment and continue their sport, or choose not to and be banned from their sport. I'm seeing the figures going the right way - down - and so we should be encouraged.

Q: You often hear that families are not coming together to sporting occasions any more. Why do you think that is?

A: Some of things taking place around sport have dissuaded people from taking families. The language issue, the aggressive behaviour, the use of drugs, all of these have contrived to impact on the sporting experience.

We have to attack these issues systematically, with the help of the clubs and organisations. But you have to change attitudes and behaviour all the way up from our schools. The behaviour you want at senior level, you have to start by getting that at minor level.

It's important that parents and players know what the rules are and that they respect them. We have to abide by rules in the workplace and at home, it's no different on the sports field.

Q: What are the big issues on your plate at the moment?

A: One major issue is National Sportsmanship Day. It's not decided yet, but I see us going to the schools and asking youngsters to define sportsmanship and to ask them to set goals of sportsmanship and to sign off on these with their parents. We should also acknowledge acts of sportsmanship.

Sports standards at all levels, the freedom of women to participate in all sports, the Hall of Fame to honour people who have made stirling contributions, then the motor sports centre at St. George's which we will be soon be starting on.

We want to get more people involved in sport. The obesity figures are not good. Sport can help so much there.

You feel good when you're fit. I want everybody to feel that way, on a natural high. When those endorphins start kicking in, there's no better feeling. And that's a feeling you can reproduce day after day after day.

Q: What sports did you play as a young man?

A: Football was my sport in early days. I was a goalkeeper. At one point I played for the senior team of my club, Somerset Eagles, and I also played for the second division side. So my days were full.

I left Bermuda too early in my senior soccer years to go away to school. Softball was where I made my name after school. While I was away, I played varsity baseball for my college.

I went to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where I concentrated on soccer and baseball. I'd always wanted to do varsity wrestling, but that conflicted with the soccer, but I still managed to do some wrestling.

Q: What came after Lincoln?

A: After I'd graduated I went to Temple University, in Philadelphia, to do post-graduate studies. While at Temple, I applied for and got my first commission in sport as the physical director of the Germantown YMCA in Philadelphia, where I spent two or three glorious years (1968-1970).

Q: Why did you enjoy that job so much?

A: First of all it involved young people in the northwest part of Philadelphia, our catchment area. We had a swimming pool, a health club, facilities for tennis, handball and squash. It was my job to promote all of these activities. We had the top gymnastics team in the whole of the US. And in handball, we were state champions.

Q: I understand that Joe Frazier's sons came to Germantown?

A: Yes, we had Marvis and Marvin at the YMCA. Marvis had the makings of being a very good gymnast. He was very flexible.

Q: Was there any boxing at Germantown?

A: I was not happy to take responsibility for anyone's child boxing, during which they might suffer an injury while in my care. I still would not be happy to do it.

Q: Do you approve of boxing as a sport?

A: Yes, definitely. It needs to be done under competent, trained leadership to ensure that no child is injured. I just have a personal aversion to being involved in the coaching of that sport.

Q: So after the YMCA, you returned to Bermuda?

A: Yes, on January 1, 1971, when I took up this job. It was a difficult decision at the time. I saw that the career track I was on did not involve coming back to Bermuda. But the opportunity to come back to one's home to make a contribution - I think that's everyone's dream.

I have not regretted for one day the decision to come back here. At the time, I believed I was groomed enough from my time in the US to come and assume this responsibility.

Q: What have been the highlights of your 32 years in this job?

A: The softball stadium, the Elite Athletes Assistance Programme, the National Junior Athletes Assistance Programme, summer day camp programmes. With Tom Smith, the former Sports Adviser, we devised a sailing and swimming programme.

We were concerned that as an island community, it was important that children knew the rudiments of water safety. It still exists today and I think it gave rebirth to the Swimming Association and the Sailing Association, both of which have used it as a step to their feeder programmes.

I was very pleased to be involved with the National Sports Centre. And we see it now taking shape after all these years. I remember talking at the Bank of Bermuda with the Sports Minister of the time, the late Lancelot Swan, and the then-Government leader Sir Henry Tucker, about the National Sports Centre. It's taken that long, But it's a great joy to see it now taking shape.

I happened to preside over the period in which the apartheid movement in South Africa was around and we encouraged sports people in Bermuda not to participate there. That was another key point during the time I was there.

I was talking often to Sam Ramsammy, who is now president of the South African Olympic Association, over the phone. He was based in England. We talked maybe three times a week for three or four years. Then those barriers came down.

At the Commonwealth Games in 1986 in Victoria, Canada, I was at a swimming event with Sports Minister Pam Gordon. She introduced me to him. And we talked and talked. That was highlight.

Q: Why do you feel so passionately about the importance of young people participating in sport?

A: I see sport as the platform for building communities and building social relationships. You will recall when President Nixon wanted to have discussions with China. He preceded these discussions with the visit of the US ping-pong team to China, to break down the barriers that existed. Sport has been used throughout history in this way.

I think sport is as important as education. There has to be a balance in life. And that balance incorporates academic learning as well as social learning. I believe sport plays a large part in the social aspect. And it inspires academic learning as well, because if you achieve success in sport, then there's no reason you can't foster that success in other areas of your life.

I believe this has happened with many people. It's happened with me and likewise with the Minister (former New York Cosmos professional footballer Randy Horton). He says all the time that if it wasn't for sport he wouldn't be where he is today.

Q: What sports do you play now?

A: I do weight training and running. I've retired from softball. I played into my 50s and I was still competitive. That's the difficult thing for sportsmen, to step off the stage. I stepped off before people asked me to.

Fitness has always been my thing and I continue to do that, six days a week. I get up at 4.45 a.m., I leave home at 5.30, I get to the gym and I'm out on the street running by 6 a.m. Or I run in the gym if the weather's bad outside.

If there's one weakness in the Bermuda sports profile, it's that the importance of weight training is not stressed enough. It's vital for the maintenance of muscles, flexibility and strengths. Many sports require a degree of strength and weight training. I'm not talking about bulky weightlifters. I'm talking about working on the muscles you already have to maximise your potential.

Q: What's the biggest event on the Bermuda sporting calendar?

A: May 24 and Cup Match. To pick one of those two would be difficult. Our sporting history is as important as any other part of our history and both events have history.

As a boy, I used to dress up for Cup Match. With my father being a Cup Match captain it was a big occasion for us. It was unlike any other outing we had.

Cup Match is about the bringing together this entire community about a sporting spectacle event for several reasons. One is the game and around the game is this wonderful social occasion which brings together rich and poor, young and old, to celebrate a sport we have passion for.

May 24 has a history. The Marathon Derby was always there, but when Government organised Heritage Day in 1979, it was decided we should celebrate the history and social aspect of it too. I view it similarly to Cup Match in that it brings together people of different races and nationalities. It makes us appreciate our diversity and our culture.