Lacovia’s Ennis driven by dream to thrive among elite

Lacovia High School's girls' head coach Kamille Ennis does not hide her pride in her alma mater.

It is for that reason that, despite the historical quality of competition from more established schools at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships (Champs), Ennis is determined to show that greatness can come from anywhere.

Ennis has been coaching Lacovia since 2008 in a bid to cultivate a strong track culture, competing with schools like parish rivals St Elizabeth Technical High School.

A netballer when she was a schoolgirl, Ennis said that G.C. Foster College helped hone her craft as an athletics coach and fuelled her desire to take her school to greater heights, not just in athletics.

"My dream was to have Lacovia High, among all these big schools, perform and to do as well as any other," Ennis told THE WEEKEND STAR. "To show them that the school does not determine your destination, because I am a proud past student of Lacovia High School."

As head of the sporting department at the school, Ennis has been buoyed by the performances of her athletes this season. Sabrina Dockery, the fastest Class Three girls' 200m runner this year (24.03 seconds entering Champs), is the only school representative on Jamaica's Carifta Games squad. She was also crowned the Class Three 400m champion last night, while her teammate Rasheika Byfield placed sixth in the Class Two final.

Ennis said that they have been fuelled by the cancellation of Champs 2020, not letting their competitive fire dim.

"From about 2020 when Champs was not held, that is when I started feeling that energy. That's when the coaching staff started feeling the energy," she said. "That year, we had persons who broke records at Western Champs. So we were feeling the energy from then."

It is the energy that still keeps Ennis going after 14 years in the job. Ennis credited the support received from the school for helping to facilitate her goals and to keep the students motivated and together, despite the lure of other strong schools.