AT Excelsior High School the journey to the National Stadium is barely a warm-up lap as it’s practically an extension of their home ground.

With the five-day ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) fast approaching, the “Eagles” stride in with quiet confidence, looking to restore their glory days and close the history gap of the Mountain View-based institution.

Boys’ team Head Coach David Riley believes their consistency over the years has been difficult to maintain but that scoring points across the various events has led to their previous successes.

“We have, over the last couple of years, scored in all the disciplines — middle distance, jumps, throws, sprints and hurdles — which is a different experience for many other teams scoring in particular events,” Riley said.

Season after season they’ve secured a place among the top five, and for the upcoming Champs Riley, as a victorious coach in 2010, says he is not changing course.

“This is my third season not doing a points tally going into Champs,” he said. “I am more focusing on us doing what we have the potential to do and then see where that places us on the table. We are just trying to see how we can maximise our students with their participation.”

One athlete who will look to add points to the school’s table is last year’s Class 2 100m champion Michael Graham.

Graham says he has the strong support of his immediate family but it’s his track family that keeps him motivated.

“My teammates push me, along with my coach, but more so my teammates because they push me to do better, they push me to do a lot things,” he said.

Graham says the group is leaning on each other to manage over the five days as they believe this will help each to accomplish their goals. But for his personal outing he says the fireworks will come in the field.

“I am looking forward to my personal event, the long jump, Class 1 Boys — I have a goal to go out there and execute properly,” he said. “And next the 4x100m, Class 1 Boys. It will be very nice, it be very special. Look out for Excelsior.”

His teammate Riquelme Reid, who ran a personal best 10.16 seconds over 100m at the recent Carifta Trials, is also confident not only for his 100m, but the highly anticipated sprint relay.

“We [the quartet] built a bond, a strong bond,” he said. “It comes mostly off the track more than on the track. You can expect a lot of things — like a gold medal — and further on throughout the season — like maybe the Penn Relays — bringing home the plaque down by Excelsior.”

The school clocked a personal best time of 39.69 seconds in the Class 1 Boys’ 4x100m at the Gibson McCook Relays in February, which has positioned them as one of the favourites for the event.

Despite their consistent top finishings at Champs over the years, Reid says Excelsior is still underrated.

“Most people don’t give us the right ratings,” he said. “We are like in the top five for like the past five years or more, so people don’t really give us the thing we should be getting but we have an aim this championships.”

Excelsior started their championship bonding camp this weekend, ahead of Champs’’ start on Tuesday.

— Trishana McGowan

RILEY… we are just trying to see how we can maximise our students with their participation

Champs 2026 logo