Having lost by a meagre seven points last year, the girls from Hydel High School are expected to once again challenge for the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Athletics Championship title despite having a small squad.

Head Coach Corey Bennett is oozing confidence although he knows the task at hand is a difficult one to dethrone Edwin Allen High School.

“What I am confident about is that we are going to compete hard and we not going to just roll over and die,” Bennett told the Jamaica Observer as he took time out from his team’s training session recently.

“We gonna compete hard and we not going to make up numbers. You are going to see Hydel again and persons are going to know that we are at Champs,” he added.

He continued: “So don’t think that we are going to be brushed aside because we are undermanned or we have some weaknesses. Even when we are weak we are expected to go out there and dig out a point or two, and we are a team that do our best at Champs and I expect everybody to rise again and get it right at Champs, and we are hoping that will happen again in 2020.”

In 2019, Hydel High School were projected to finish fourth, more than 150 points behind the winner by the noted Track and Field Champs preview magazine.

But Coach Bennett and his staff almost pulled off a remarkable win, falling short in second place on 284 points to champions Edwin Allen High School’s 291. Many-time winners Holmwood Technical High School were third with 220, and St Jago High School fourth on 207 points.

“A miss is as good as a mile and having come so close last year maybe we should have taken it. Things weren’t in place to take it last year, just wasn’t the time,” said Bennett.

Hydel High School will try once again to break the dominance of Edwin Allen High School but with only 48 athletes, Bennett thinks it is a herculean task.

“I think Wolmer’s Boys’ [School] won it with 38, but they didn’t have one class which is Class Four. So we have to take into consideration that we are going to need more athletes. The truth is that it didn’t make sense to have athletes around just for having them sake and we have to focus on the core of the team now and that’s where we at,” he pointed out.

Hydel High School do have quality in Captain Garriel White, Ashanti Moore, Kerrica Hill, Thaila Wilson, Rhianna Phillips, Jody-Ann Daley, Oneka Wilson, Machaeda Linton, Aaliyah Baker, Oneika McAnnuff, Jada Martin, and Rohanna Sudlow spread across all classes.

“Things looking different this year. In middle distance we are woeful. Throwers are so very undermanned but we have improved in some areas. We have improved across the board in the sprints and the hurdles,” Bennett explained.

“But other schools have strong persons in the sprints and hurdles as well so it’s going to just come down to one event at a time and last year we had a very good championship. I would say about 85 per cent and they came through for us.

“This year, we would have to have a very good championship again, so I am trying to keep the kids fresh as much as possible. There are a lot of meets and having too many meets is not good for us right now. So we kind of tempering that right now because they are young.”

Dubbed the greatest spectacle on this side of the hemisphere, schools spend millions of dollars in preparation for Champs but Hydel High School have been struggling financially.

‘It’s rough. If we look at a budget we wouldn’t start because we know we can’t get that budget,” Bennett noted.

“Thankfully the other day, Express Kitchens and Wisynco came on board and gave us some stuff. We have a standpipe over there when they finish they go and drink some water. We don’t have a past students’ association and those things,” said Bennett.

“So, we know that we are working behind the eighth ball but we give thanks and are doing the best with the resources we have,” he added.

“The kids tend not to complain much and one of our biggest issues is the medical bill and when persons get hurt…what they are charging out there now to look at a child is ridiculous. So we have to be doing a lot of things internally. It doesn’t make sense to think about a budget right now,” reiterated Bennett.