QPC Sports Club Head Coach Floyd Quarrie says he wants to use his recent Level 3 coaching certification experience to inspire his local colleagues to improve.

Quarrie is now on his way to being a Level 3 certified coach after completing the United States of America Track and Field’s (USATF) Coaching Education Program. USATF is the governing body for athletics in the United States but its certification programme is open to coaches internationally. Once certified, they are qualified to coach anywhere in the world as the programme is internationally recognised.

The course’s duration is 32 hours and is administered by sport scientists and, as USATF describes them, “elite coaches”.

Quarrie’s Level 3 certification is focused on sprints, hurdles, and relay training. He now has until September to complete a “capstone” project wherein he must essentially work with and prove he has developed an athlete through the methods learned in his studies.

“I’d like to set a standard for coaches being professional, and having an education, being able to represent the athletes well,” Quarrie told the Jamaica Observer. “We have great coaches and phenomenal athletes, but having more coaches would make us even more equipped to lift the standard of Jamaican athletics even further.

“It’s similar to a PhD. I can now coach anywhere; the opportunities are boundless where that is concerned.”

Quarrie says having this certification will make his résumé more appealing.

“I’m a very professional individual, especially when it comes to the sport of track and field,” he said. “I’d love to see the sport being dealt with professionally so it only makes sense that I become as highly ranked a professional in my field as a coach.”

Quarrie says he sought ways to improve his credentials for over five years but was not able to find the right opportunities locally.

“I started out by reaching out to the JAAA [Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association] to be a part of the World Athletics coaching courses, at various levels, starting at Level 1,” he said, “but for five years, for whatever reason, I just couldn’t get in.

“In 2020 the USATF presented an online format to their Level 1 course. I quickly jumped on it and took the opportunity, and decided that because it’s an internationally recognised certification, I should do it. I got the Level 1 a year after, then I got the Level 2, then there was a lull for the Level 3 — which is the final level — which just became available in 2023. I registered for it, went through an application process and got in, and I’m here now.”

But Quarrie says most local coaches who seek to do this programme are challenged by its cost.

“As I mentioned, it’s similar to doing a PhD so you can imagine the price bracket where that is concerned,” he said. “The main challenge I found was the lack of information, and the lack of availability of information for coaches as far as being able to expand and spread their wings for knowledge. It’s something that’s hard to find locally, as far as certification courses go. I’d like to be a part of the initiation of those sorts of initiatives.”

Although Quarrie is busy with QPC Sports he is also a key member of Franz Forde’s technical staff at Immaculate Conception High School, whose athletics season recently started.

He and Forde are looking to improve on Immaculate’s seventh-place finish at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships last year. Although they hoped for a higher finish they were proud of their 97-point total, which was a 21-point improvement on the previous year.