“TOP of the stick, Keno, top of the stick. Give him something to swing with,” bellowed Orville Brown, head of Jamaica College (JC) track and field team as they fine-tuned preparations recently for the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Championships.

As the school motto says, Fervet Opus in Campis (Work is Burning in the Fields) JC, who last won Champs in 2011 and placed second last year, are not expected by the pundits to win, but coach Brown expects the athletes to flourish in their hunt for a 22nd title.

“For the last two years there has been a major turn-around in our track and field programme here,” Brown noted.

“We won in 2011 much against the expectations of the fraternity. Last year we scored more points in the jumping events than any school in the history of the championships, having scored some 80.5 points,” he added.

JC finished with 258.5 points, behind Calabar’s 299, and surprisingly ahead of KC with 247.5 points. This year they don’t seem to be as strong, but the Old Hope Road faithfuls remain optimistic and are quietly expecting victory.

But it won’t be an easy task and Brown is expecting another good show to be led by his four athletes who went to the World Youth Championships — O’Brien Waysome, Waseem Williams, Clayton Brown and Devaughn Baker.

“We are getting ready and (have) designed our programmes for Champs and that’s our objective again this year,” said Brown.

“One of the things that we were very proud of is that we had four boys selected to the World Youth Championships and those boys have become the flagship of the team and we are expecting some good performances from them as well,” he added.

But JC are far from a four-member team and Brown acknowledged that although it may be difficult to deal with such a large team, he has the remedy.

“We have a wide spectrum of personalities, so you have to find what is best or most effective. Those who probably need that kind of fathering relationship you apply it accordingly. Those who need a little forceful effort to get them out of their slumber, we apply that accordingly,” said Brown.

“I have a reputation of being a tough person, but I think I am fair and I insist that things follow a particular course and that’s all it takes.”

Waseem Williams who is expected to be one of the school’s top athletes in the Class One sprints, said last year was his best while in Class Two, but will be giving of his all again.

“I medalled in my individual event last year and I broke the record. I trained hard, but it’s a higher level of competition, so I am just hoping for the best,” said Williams, who was a part of Jamaica’s gold medal medley relay team at the World Youth Championships last year.

The youngster, who wants to become a lawyer, said after school he is still undecided whether to go professional or pursue his degree. But for now he is fully focused on helping JC try to regain the title they won three years ago.