Wolves coach happy with progress ahead of Champs

Head coach of the Immaculate Conception High School track and field team Franz Forde says his athletes are beginning to hit their stride as they continue preparations for this year’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs), which will be staged from March 24-28 at the National Stadium in Kingston.

While noting that the season is still in its early stages, Forde said his girls have been showing encouraging form in the development meets they have contested so far, leaving the coaching staff pleased with their progress.

“Things are definitely coming along, but it is going to be a season of challenges, but we are up for the challenges,” said Forde.

“The girls are in good spirits, and I just want to ensure that everybody is healthy. And where they are right now, praise be to God, they are currently healthy, and we just want to keep them that way.”

“The girls are definitely coming out, and they are performing. We just had a development meet at Jamaica College last Saturday, and we have seen girls coming out getting personal bests, getting season’s bests, and they are pretty excited because it was a good meet, and we actually saw what we wanted to see,” he added.

Immaculate accumulated 100 points to finish fifth at last year’s Champs, which was won by Hydel with 277 points. Forde highlighted that the objective this season is to at least maintain a top-five finish or better that performance.

“We just want to go out and everybody just have fun. The girls are aware of our aim, and so we just want everybody to go out and perform at the best rate that they can,” Forde said.

“We are getting the support that we need exactly for them to attain that goal, and so everybody just needs to go out there and believe in what the coaches are saying. Once they do, then they will be quite fine. Last year, we came fifth with 100 points, and this year, we are just going out there to do everything that we need to do in order to maintain ourselves in that top five category or even better.”

The Constant Spring Road-based institution has also been strengthened by the addition of talented sprinter Kaysian Sewell, who transferred from Wolmer’s Girls’ School at the end of last season. Forde noted that Sewell has fit in well with the group and that he is pleased with her progress so far.

“She is fitting in quite well. She is doing the 400 metres and got a season’s best in the 400 metres and a personal best in the 200 metres. She ran on the 4x400-metre relay team on Saturday, and we are happy to see where she is at now, and so we are pretty pleased. She fits right into the wolf culture [The Immaculate track and field team are nkown as the Wolves], which we also appreciate as well,” Forde noted.