Excelsior upgrades ‘Equator’

Excelsior High School cranked up its effort in track and field this week with the dedication of a new, improved gymnasium. Named the ‘Equator’ by students in the 1960s, the expanded facility now houses a wide range of modern weight-training equipment and changing rooms. Opened on Wednesday, the Equator is part of a systematic approach to success.

Desmond Shakespeare, who was a student-athlete at Excelsior in the 1960s and now the patriarch of Excelsior’s track and field programme, placed the new development in perspective during a tour of the gym. “Champs (ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships), and when I say Champs, I’m referring to both Boys and Girls’ Champs, is a lot more difficult to win than when we won decades ago,” he said in a reference to the school’s 1960 Boys’ Championships title and four Girls Championships crowns it garnered in the 1970s. “That’s not to say that in the medium or long term that is not our goal, but as you know, our goal right now is a little more achievable, which is to finish in the top five in both Championships.”

Winning Champs isn’t the school’s only goal.

“Apart from coming in the top five, our more immediate goal is really to change the lives of these youngsters, which we have been doing,” Shakespeare said, recounting over 30 Excelsior student-athletes who have secured US track scholarships.

“We have a college, and we have a programme where on Saturday mornings, students from the college come over and tutor our athletes, and then we have another programme which has to do with personal development, where we bring in people and speak to them,” he said.

PAST GLORIES

Under the auspices of this programme, the Excelsior track and field team has been addressed by former Netball Jamaica president Marva Bernard, Olympians Mike Fray, Lynn Headley, Vilma Charlton, and professionals from a variety of businesses.

“Some of it is practical, some of it is more motivational, so we do a lot of different things, and that’s why the principal keeps telling me that – as he calls them – my children are some of the best behaved in the school,” Shakespeare remarked.

Excelsior’s track and field programme is on the rise. In 2010, the school placed 34th and 20th in Boys Championships and Girls’ Championships, respectively. With Michael Juredini as director for DASH Athletics, a focus point for Excelsior past students to help the programme, the school has had top 10 Champs placings every year. The girls have placed sixth, seventh, sixth, and seventh in the last four years, with the boys taking 11th, seventh, eighth, and 11th.