Big movements litter high school track coaching

WHEN PREPARATION for the 2023-24 high school track and field season started recently, it did so with several of the teams having new coaches in their respective programmes.

Calabar High School, who finished third at last year’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships and has claimed the boys’ title on 21 occasions, have made two additions to their coaching staff.

Joining Corey Bennett at the helm are the very experienced and well-travelled Danny Hawthorne and Christopher Harley.

Hawthorne, who has been head coach at St Mary High, Wolmer’s Boys, St Jago High and also did a one-year stint at his alma mater, Dinthill Technical, said Bennett was the reason behind his decision.

“I was asked by several past students of Calabar to join the programme and when Corey [Bennett] asked me to be a part of the programme, helping with the sprints, I accepted,” said Hawthorne.

“Calabar has very good sprinters and I think with my experience they will benefit a lot,” said Hawthorne, who engineered the successes of athletes like Yohan Blake, Riker Hylton and Nathon Allen at St Jago.

Harley, who had stints at Wolmer’s Boys’ School, St George’s College and up to last year, Vere Technical, will assist with the hurdles programme.

After success at Vere Technical over the course of 13 years, from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, Dwayne Jarrett, who had been with the Manchester High programme for the past seven years, is now the technical director at St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) for both the male and female programmes.

Jarrett said he made the move to STETHS because the programme and his objectives were aligned.

“The school already has a very successful programme as they have been dominant over the years at the junior level,” said Jarrett.

“They do have competent coaches in the programme and with my addition to help guide them with my experience, especially in the technical areas, I expect major success. I am happy to be a part of this programme,” he said.

Mathue Tapper, who spent the past five years at Immaculate Conception High School, is now the head coach of St Andrew High school.

St Andrew failed to muster a point at last year’s Champs but Tapper says he is looking forward to the challenge.

“I am happy to be at the helm at St Andrew High. Since I was growing up, I loved that institution. I used to live next door and my dream was to be coach there in the future and now I am there,” he said.

The head coach position is an upgrade for Tapper, but one he thinks will push him to achieve.

“At Immaculate I was like a third-string coach as two other experienced coaches had been in the programme a long time.

“Now being the leader at my new team, I will be highly motivated to do well as I think I have great ideas that will work. I am even more motivated as I am starting from scratch.

“So far I have seen a lot of talent and the turnout at training has been excellent,” said Tapper.

Former head coach at St Mary’s College and throwing coach at Jamaica College, Elton Coombs, is now in the hot seat at Vere Technical.

Coombs spent the last few years at STETHS helping with throws, middle distance, and hurdles.

Vere, a team with 28 girls’ titles, the most of any school, and an institution that can boast of producing more national representatives than any other, has been struggling for years.

Coombs knows this puts him under tremendous pressure, but thinks he will do well. “Vere Technical is a school I liked in the past and I think I can help bring back the school to its glory days,” he said.

“I know that this is a pressure job, especially from the past students to deliver. I think I have the necessary coaching expertise and I have a three-year plan to get back close to the top,” said Coombs.

Wolmer’s Boys’ School welcomes Lloyd Clarke, formerly of the Queen’s School, Rahnsomn Edwards, a successful hurdles coach at Kingston College, and throwing coach, Raymond Brown.

Former Manchester High, STETHS and St. Andrew High coach, Philip Davy is a new assistant coach at Wolmer’s Girls’, focusing on middle distance and throws.

Kadian Flemming is at the helm at Manchester High where he will be assisted by former STETHS quarter-miler, Latonel Williams.