St Jago shaping ‘fearless’ mindset, more points

St Jago's head coach Joseph Small said he is working to instil a fearless mindset within his young team as they look to improve their points tally at this year's ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Championships.

The championships will be held at the National Stadium from March 24-28.

St Jago finished fourth last year with 149 points, well behind champions Hydel, who amassed 277 points.

"We are trying to instil that fearless mentality in them even though they are still young," said Small, who is in his second year as the team's coach.

"They might not fully understand the philosophy that I am trying to instil in them since last year, and it has been a task trying to see how best I can change the philosophy. What I want from them is getting there, but it is not fully there yet."

He added that the preparations have not been without challenges, but noted the coaching staff continues to manage the group carefully to ensure athletes qualify for the championships.

"Things have been going good so far, but we have one or two concerns here and there. We are trying to work together as a collective group because this year is a little bit tricky with the preparation," he said. "We are trying to see how best we can manage each person and also get them qualified for Champs."

Small expressed pleasure with the general progress of his team.

"The meets so far show progress, but they are not where I want them to be yet because we have a lot more work to do. The team is generally a young team. We don't have many seniors at the top yet, so we are continuing to build from last year," he said.

He highlighted that increasing the team's points spread will be the primary objective this season, rather than focusing solely on final placing.

"Points spread is going to be one of the main things for us at Champs because even though we finished fourth last year, based on how young the team was, we never got to maximise the points. Before we start looking at position, we want to improve our points tally. Once the points increase, that will determine where we finish this year," Small reasoned.