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Andrea Hardware

Calabar High launches revolutionary Legacy Athletics Track Club

Hawse, who has been coaching for more than 15 years, made the pronouncement at the launch of Jamaica’s newest track club earlier today.

Legacy was formed by Calabar High School with its leaders being part of the school’s hierarchy. Karl B Johnson, board chairman at Calabar is the club’s chairman while Principal Albert Corcho is a director.

The club boasts the likes of 2011 World Championship silver medalist Jura Levy, Deuce Carter, and Roneisha McGregor as well as a cadre of talented athletes on the rise including Dejour Russell, Crystal Morrison, Michael Bentley, Tyreke Wilson, Anthony Carpenter, Amoi Brown and Michael O’Hara.

“Our organization has been blessed with a group of athletes that – when I did my research – not even the three leading clubs in Jamaica, has got a chance to start with such a great group of athletes,”  Hawse said.

“We are indeed blessed at Legacy.”

Hawse said he and the other coaches at the club, Ynick Morrison, Nicholas Neufville and Craig Sewell, are committed to helping each of these athletes achieve their maximum potential.

“As coaches, we continue to improve on our craft and give each and every athlete the attention needed to be at their best and to attain their best in representing their country, family and friends,” he said.

“We are doing our best to help them realize their dreams by paying keen attention to each and every aspect of their physical, emotional and psychological development.”

Legacy also intends to do more; much more, according to its President and CEO Andrea Hardware, who announced that Legacy will also offer athlete representation as well as personal professional development.

“Permit me to say two sentences about our personal development portfolio. Included in the portfolio are interventions to address the formal education of all of our clients through scholarships,” she said.

“The development of their mental fortitude, tools to help them make better choices about their nutrition and lifestyle as sportsmen and women and building their individual brands for sustainability. Our intention is to be very deliberate in helping our clients achieve success and to begin to think beyond their playing days.

“In fact, research has revealed that people like Usain Bolt and Michael Jordan are making more money now than they were while they were playing.”

The club’s website says Legacy Athletics believes that Jamaica has too rich a sporting heritage to squander and aims to be a conduit and to provide a framework for young women and men bestowed with special athletic talent to attain their highest potential.

“In so doing we will be playing our part in minimizing the number of young persons who fall through the cracks of our traditional educational and socio-economic systems,” it said.

Calabar High, Legacy Track Club plunged into gloom over death of beloved coach

The body of the 38-year-old jumps coach, and that of an unidentified woman, was found in an empty lot at West Trade Way in Portmore, St Catherine shortly before 7 am, police said.

The news has plunged the entire Calabar High School community into a state of despair.

"The entire Calabar and Legacy family is deeply saddened by the untimely and tragic passing of our beloved coach, brother and friend," said Calabar team manager Andrea Hardware, who is also President and CEO of Legacy Track Club.

"The passion he had for coaching and the belief in the abilities of his charges knew no bounds.  We are grieving! It is raw and only time will heal our hearts. May his soul rest in peace."

According to the Legacy Track Club’s website, Neufville, also known as 'Soapman' is a Calabar High school alumnus who represented the school at the ISSA Boys and Girls Championships. He was also a national representative both at junior and senior levels.

 A World Athletics certified Level II coach in the sprints and jumps, he also served as a member of the coaching staff at Calabar High where he is currently coaching junior athletes such as long jumper Jordan Turner and triple jumper Luke Brown both of whom have been national junior representatives, the website said.

Over the course of his coaching career, Neufville helped condition some of Jamaica’s top junior sprinters including Christopher Taylor, Oblique Seville, Dejour Russell and Michael O’Hara.

He has also been a member of the national coaching staff for the following games for the 2011 CARIFTA games in the Cayman Islands, the 2018 CAC Senior games in Columbia and 2019 under 20 Pan American Games in Costa Rica.