Johnson flips script as JC storms to 23rd title

Having lost to Kingston College (KC) by 86 points a year ago - finishing third on 207 points to KC's 293 - in a big turnaround, Jamaica College's (JC) second-year head coach Duane Johnson flipped the script as his team won the Mortimer Geddes Trophy for the 23rd time.

JC scored 345 points to defeat KC by 63 points after the North Street- based school ended on 282 points for second on Saturday night at the ISSA Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships.

Johnson was elated to lift his first title at the helm.

"It feels good to know that all your hard work has paid off," he said.

Last year when I lost, I got a watery baptism. But being a Christian who believes in God, I went down on my knees and prayed to the Lord to give me the wisdom. I had a plan, which was to bolster my coaching staff, as I think I was doing too much as a head coach and needed more help," he said.

"I did my homework thinking about coaches for the programme, and Corey Bennett, who was available, first came to mind. I got in touch with him, but at first he was very hesitant, as you know he was coming out of a hostile environment at Calabar. I told him that I just needed him to assist with my sprinters and a few weeks later he agreed to be a part of the programme," said Johnson.

"Also, I was approached by Bertland Cameron, who wanted to be a part of the programme. After checking with my principal and management staff, the decision was made to get him. In addition, we got Wilbert Walker as jumping coach, who came at the right time as we lost our regular jumping coach due to some petty disagreement, and all three coaches really did well in the success of the team."

Going into the championships, many experts saw it as a very close affair between Jamaica College and Kingston College, but in the end it was a massive win for Jamaica College, who led from day one.

"Yes, we expected a close championships between both teams. We had a few tricks in the bag, as most of our younger boys who competed early in the season, we ensured they did not compete regularly, but just to get the Champs qualifying marks and stay in the top half of the ISSA ranking while we worked on them, and they came out trumps in the end," he said.

"We also took advantage of Kingston College's early errors, which they failed to recover from. We told the guys that KC is a fighting team and we cannot allow them to get back. We also knew that Saturday, the final day, was going to be a good day for Kingston College and all we needed to do was to get people in the finals, and it worked well," he said.

Being champions, Johnson knows that his team will be hunted going forward. But he is prepared for this.

"I know that both Kingston College and Calabar will be putting on their punching gloves going forward and it will not be easy to stay on top. But we have already started preparing for next year as we have a young team, despite losing a few top Class One athletes, including Michael Andre Edwards, who will be off to the University of Kansas. But we will ensure that the puzzle will be fixed," he said.