Monday morning saw Kingston College celebrate their historic 36th hold on the prestigious Mortimer Geddes Trophy awarded to the Boys winners at the annual ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships.
Students from both the upper and lower school campuses gathered at the upper school’s 2A North Street home to celebrate the title in the school’s 100th year of existence.
KC produced a dominant display over the five days from March 25-29 at the National Stadium in Kingston, amassing 293 points from the 42 Boys finals, 63.75 points clear of rivals Calabar High in second and 86 ahead of Jamaica College in third.
“We had a lot of people fighting against KC. They wanted to stop KC from winning this year’s championship. However, our team said there’s no way that’s going to happen,” said KC Principal Dave Myrie during Monday’s celebration.
“Anybody who bet against KC, do so to their own peril because every time they try to keep us down, we get back up and keep going,” he added.
This victory was a special moment for outgoing head coach, Leaford Grant, who is retiring after leading KC to the crown for the fifth time.
“It is a good and a bad feeling. Nobody wants to leave KC but when the time comes when you want to give your all and you won’t be able to, you have to proceed that way,” he told Sportsmax.tv.
Despite what outsiders had said earlier in the season about KC’s readiness for the world’s biggest high school athletics showcase, Grant was confident of victory all along based on his team selection.
“We knew that we were going to win Champs long before Champs. We planned and put in the necessary team. It all starts from the type of team you pick so, from there, when we checked and compared ourselves amongst the other schools, we knew that we were going to win,” he said.
In fact, Grant said the team did even better than he calculated.
“We were 10-15 points better than where we thought we would be in the end,” he said.
Outgoing senior and 400m silver medallist and relay gold medallist, Marcinho Rose, was also on hand in the celebration, describing it as “a great feeling” going out on top.
“We motivated each other in the camp, stayed focused, listened to our coach and did what needed to be done,” he said.
Rose was also happy to give Grant a fitting sendoff.
“It was very important. Mr. Leaford has been doing a lot for us throughout the years so it was very special,” Rose said.