Riley has Excelsior aiming for stronger Champs finish

David Riley, head coach of Excelsior High’s track and field team, says they are aiming for a stronger finish at this year’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) and is confident that the school can improve on last season’s performance despite some disruptions to their preparation.

Excelsior finished fifth among the boys last year with 79 points, while the girls accumulated 72 points to finish eighth. Kingston College (293 points) and Hydel (277 points) captured the boys’ and girls’ titles respectively.

According to Riley, the build-up this season has been slightly adjusted due to changes in the competition schedule, nevertheless his athletes are quite upbeat and ready to go.

“It has been going but the cancellations of some of the meets have changed our strategy a bit because we have specific meets that we go normally based on our events disciplines that we have strength in and so we had to make certain changes in respect to that. But apart from that, everything is going according to plan,” said Riley.

Despite those challenges, Riley noted that performances, so far, have been encouraging.

“Our athletes have been doing well, I mean the results are there to show,” Riley said.

“We are aiming for better. That is the objective for this season so we have retained quite a few of the students from last year and so we are expecting them to demonstrate a high level of skill and put down some really good performances so that Excelsior fans can cheer.”

While optimistic, Riley pointed out that it is still early in the season and difficult to assess the strength of rival schools.

“That is the hope but it is still early to see what the other teams are doing because we don’t compete in a vacuum. So it is still early to see what the quality is from the other teams before we can say that ‘we can’ or ‘we will’ but we are aiming to go out there and deliver our best performances and wherever that places us on the table, then we will be fine with it,” he said.

Excelsior will be relying heavily on a core of experienced athletes, including several national representatives, to lead their campaign at next month’s championships which will be held at the National Stadium from March 24-28.

“We have seven national representatives on our male team and two on our female team, so those athletes are known,” Riley stated.

“Malique Nugent, Michael Graham, Requilme Reid, Kevaughn Grant, Anthony Hall, Brianna Brown are some of our athletes who have made the national team and have done well for us and those are the bulk of athletes that we are expecting to carry the assignment there, and so far, they are looking good,” said the vastly experienced coach.

Riley highlighted that the Mountain View-based institution preparations for this year’s championships have gone beyond physical readiness, with emphasis also placed on mental focus ahead of the event.

“The athletes have prepared mentally and physically for the task and it is just how well they are able to put things together on the day,” he said.

“You have had athletes who trained all year and go out there and false start and then it is just all down the drain. So it is just a matter of how well you keep your composure and go out there and demonstrate what level of fitness that you have.”