Hydel determined to win Girls’ Champs title

It might seem hard to believe, but Hydel High School girls’ athletics programme is only nine years old.

Within those short years, they have not only grown into a household name at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championship, but a team that is contending to take down the dynasty that the girls from Edwin Allen High School are creating.

For the past three seasons, they have finished in the runner-up position, inching closer each time.

Last year, they were only 35 points behind Edwin Allen, and coach Corey Bennett told STAR Sports that his team is ready to make a run at the title again.

“We want to win Champs, but every time we think that it is realistic, it just seems far-fetched. We have a big enough squad. I am not sure that we will be able to be competitive in all the events, but I am also not sure that there is any team that can be competitive in all the events. We will be competitive again,” Bennett shared.

“We never thought that we would have been 35 points away from the winner last year. A part of it is our kids believing that they can, because we have never won it before. And it is easier for someone who did, to go back there again. But we are going after it again,” he explained.

PATIENCE WILL PREVAIL

Bennett admits that having the preparatory school as a feeder has benefited his high school programme tremendously, and he believes that just as they did with the preparatory school athletics programme, patience will enable them to claim the Girls’ Champs title soon.

“When we just started out with the prep-school level, it took us a while to figure it out, but when we did, you could really see it. We have won Prep Champs for about 14 straight years now and I think one of the things that we do is, we teach instead of coaching, and that is why we have been doing well and that is carried over into the high school.”

He continued: “Some people do move on after the prep school, but we have some that we target to continue at Hydel, and because of that relationship that we have with the parents, most times they do continue with us.”