Over the past 25 years, only Kingston College (KC) and Calabar High have managed consecutive boys’ titles at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Athletics Championships. However, Jamaica College (JC) are planning to build a dynasty with Head Coach Duane Johnson confident in his athletes and staff.

JC lifted the Mortimer Geddes Trophy for the 23rd time at the National Stadium recently after their dominant display over the five-day championships. After 42 finals, they finished with 345 points, 63 points ahead of KC and 175 points ahead of Calabar, marking one of the biggest margins of victory in recent years.

The achievement is a remarkable start for Johnson, himself a past JC student. He told the
Jamaica Observer that finishing behind KC in 2025 was a learning experience as it was his first experience overseeing an athletics programme.

“Well, truth be told, when I actually took over at first as head coach last year, I want to say I had a watery baptism because it was rough,” he said. “When I looked at our structure, I thought we needed to improve it a lot because there was a lot that was left on me — both coaching and managing and all that stuff.”

Johnson says the additions of reputable coaches including Corey Bennett and Bert Cameron to his staff made a significant difference to the team’s efficiency.

“I thought about how I wanted to restructure my team and I put pen to paper and luckily for me, because I’m a person who relies on the divine intervention from God, I prayed to him and luckily for me, I just saw some wonderful coaches popping up on the radar,” he said.

“Corey Bennett was the first one and I reached out to him and luckily for me, he accepted the call. After a little bit of hesitation, of course, I suspect because of his experience he had at Calabar but he decided to come on-board. Then I got a phone call from Bert Cameron who, out of the blue, said he wanted to join and I said sure. Then Waseem Williams, a former national sprinter and a sprinter here at JC, came to me and said he wanted to assist. Then I reached out to Wilbert Walker and he was huge. We just organised ourselves in a way where we had coaches just focusing on different areas and then there are the things that we did and everything just came together.”

The last time JC won consecutive titles was from 1998 to 2000. Since then, KC and Calabar have gone on extended winning streaks. KC won six-straight from 2001 to 2006 as well as four-straight from 2022 to 2025. Calabar, meanwhile, won seven back-to-back crowns from 2012 to 2018.

Although elated with this year’s title, Johnson has set his sights on a sustained championship run.

“We’re losing about five key youngsters in class one but we have a plan for that. It’s a very young team — the majority of our production in class three, for example, came from class four boys and the majority of our class two production came from first-year class two boys,” he said.

“We started planning for next year already and we’re hoping to plug some of the gaps that we’ve already identified. Let’s see where the chips fall, really, because I know that our competitors won’t rest easy and I know they’ll come back at us but we’ll be ready for that charge.”

Johnson says he’ll have more options to choose from starting in 2027 with the title win inspiring dozens of boys at the Old Hope Road-based school to join the team.

“I was overwhelmed with how many of them just keep coming up,” he said. “There are some boys who actually I knew that were in the school that have the talent but they just never came out and they’re rushing me now [saying], ‘Sir, I want to be a part of this next year’.

“I know this is going to start a big drive and a big push from boys that we know have the talent to do this. It will be very interesting to see how much of them come out. I know for a fact that I’ll be working hard to ensure that they come out and they stick to what they tell me. I’ll call their parents, as well, and get them out and I’m looking forward to it.”

Michael-Andre Edwards from Jamaica College in full flight in the Class 1 boys’ triple jump, which he won with a 16.25m effort at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium on Friday, March 27. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Jamaica College celebrating their 43rd ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ Athletics Championships title inside the Karl Hendrickson Auditorium on Monday, March 30, 2026. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

Jamaica College celebrate after claiming their 23rd hold on the Mortimer Geddes Trophy at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium on Saturday, March 28. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)