Lacovia High’s track programme battles back after Hurricane Melissa’s devastation

Kamille Ennis, head coach of the Lacovia High School's track and field team, says the programme continues to rebuild after being severely affected by Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, which caused widespread devastation across western parishes on October 28 last year.

Despite the challenges, Ennis remains determined to have her team from the St Elizabeth-based school ready for this year's ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships (Champs), even though her squad will be one of the youngest in the competition.

"We have a pretty young team because the oldest child that I have on my team is 15 years old, a first-year Class Two girl, so all the others are 14 and under," said Ennis.

"Initially, when we started training we had about 20 athletes, but after Hurricane Melissa we only had two boys training and a few girls coming out once or twice, so the numbers dropped. However, we are going to Champs this year.

"We have Nicholas Jones, who won a medal in the Class Three 400 metres last year and has moved up to Class Two now. We also have Darrion Francis in the Class Three 400 metres as well. We still have Sabrina Dockery's sister who is still in Class Four. Her name is Diana Ellis, and she made the semifinals of the 100 and 200 metres at Champs last year," Ennis said.

She underscored that the hurricane has left extensive damage to the school's infrastructure, including dormitories and training facilities, forcing the programme to operate under difficult conditions.

"However, we were able to push through. The female dormitory was totally destroyed. We lost the roof and all the beds were soaked," Ennis explained.

"We also had a building that we used when the boys are camping and that roof was also gone, so we ended up coming to training three days a week, but only a few athletes would turn up. We still toughed it out and tried to stay focused despite the adversity that we suffered. We went to a meet in December and what we had to do was camp a few of them in a little room in order to get that done."

Ennis noted that assistance has since arrived to help restore the facilities and said she is grateful for the support the institution has received.

"But God has been good to us because somebody came on board -- I can't tell you the name of these persons -- but it is a group of persons who came on board and they have almost finished putting the dorm back together," she added.

St Elizabeth, one of the parishes hardest hit by the hurricane, is also the former school of outstanding national junior sprinter Sabrina Dockery, who turned professional at the end of last season.

"Our field was in a horrible condition, but we can train now because they cleared some of the debris. There is a house next to our field, so all the coconuts from over there fell on our field, destroying some of my hurdles and the fence. We also lost some sneakers and spikes as well," Ennis noted.

Despite the progress, Ennis said more assistance is still needed, especially with a promising group of committed young athletes.

"However, some more help would be good because we have a very nice crop of youngsters who are training very hard. Even after the hurricane, they walked miles to training and these student-athletes are very dedicated," she said.

She also pointed out that a recent outbreak of the flu within her squad of about 20 athletes has affected preparations, with several athletes forced to miss training.

"One of our biggest problems right now is that there is an outbreak of flu and at the last meet we went to, quite a few of them had to pull out," Ennis said. "That is my biggest concern right now because most of them are just resuming training this week after being out for about a week and a half. They are here, but they are not in full shape yet. We are, however, trying to go to the Calabar meet on Saturday.