Francis backs coaches ... but says athletes pushed too hard, too early

Andre Lowe

High-school coaches are paid to coach athletes for success at that level and cannot be expected to care too much about keeping them fresh for national representation.

That is the view of noted track and field coach Stephen Francis. However, the MVP Track Club head coach, while expressing that he understands the pressures of expectation levelled at the feet of the local high-school coaches, he is also of the view that the youngsters are being pushed too hard, too early.

"Each coach in Jamaican high schools is paid by the school that they work for and their job is to do as much for the school as they can," said Francis. "It is not their job to hold back and to keep athletes for the national programme."

Francis is of the view that the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association should consider providing incentives such as a stipend for high-school coaches, if they wish to have them consider the national programme in their preparation of the athletes.

BEST FOR THEIR SCHOOL

"Every coach is going to want to do the best for his school, with the athletes he or she has. I don't think if you do something as a coach which, someone thinks is not in the best interest (of the athletes) in 10 years' time; I don't think the coach should be concerned about it," Francis reasoned.

Still, the veteran coach admits that the current situation is certainly not ideal.

"That said, it'd be nicer if there wasn't such an emphasis on current results," Francis noted.

"It is one of the saddest things to see somebody who was extremely good at Class Three or Class Two, and when he or she is 19 or 20 (years old), he says 'I was good at some point in time, but I'm done, injuries got to me.

"While not everyone will be able to make it on the senior level, a lot of them strive for that. It's a tricky situation - what do you do with a youngster who is 14-year-old and he wants to win at Champs. You want him to win at Champs, his parents want him to win at Champs, so how do you balance, trying to go as far as he could but trying to prepare him as you should prepare a 14-year-old? It's a very delicate balance," added Francis.

"A lot of the kids who do well in this current environment aren't going to make a transition past what they are doing now. But I don't see anything wrong with it, it's the system that we have, because we have enough people around. So you can afford to lose a couple and some want their glory now," Francis noted.