2023 BLAZING IN BUDAPEST
MAKING THE TRANSITION HUBERT LAWRENCE
school system, doing well athlecally, and you have those who are the flip side to that, doing extremely well athlecally but poorly academically. So this is why I say you look at both sides of the fence, and I’m not going to say this is what you should do because it’s not everybody that can fit in the same shoe,” explained the coach who took an unheralded Candice McLeod through the UWI system to the 400‐metre finals at the 2021 Olympic and the 2022 World Championships. Coleman believes that young candidates oen get bad advice. As a result, many who go pro are ill prepared. “They have to go through a huge adjustment
Gonzales from high school into the professional ranks in 2003. Asked how helpful the local environment is for youngsters hoping to move from high school to the next level, Fitz replied, “I would say I’m on both sides of the fence, and I would say that because there are different types of youngsters coming out from the high school system. You have those who are talented on both sides of the fence, academically, athlecally,” he said from experience. GROWING UP FAST – THE PROS & CONS OF GOING PRO
W hen Herb 1942 to take up a track scholarship at Boston College, the sprint legend‐to‐be was making history. For more than 50 years aerwards, almost all McKenley le Jamaica in Jamaican track and field hopefuls followed in his footsteps to the United States to further their
athlec and academic ambions. Since the late 1990s, however, a great many have stayed home with Usain Bolt and Shelly‐
Herb McKenley was the rst Jamaican high school star to transition to the
next level on an overseas scholarship
“Then you have the average ones who can hold up in the
Ann Fraser‐Pryce becoming all‐ me greats by virtue of local training. But concern is mounng about the rate at which young prospects develop into world beaters. Some, like Bolt did in 2003, turn professional even before their Boys’ and Girls’ Championships eligibility has ended. Others like Fraser‐Pryce go to college and defer going pro unl later. Coach Fitz Coleman has sent thousands of Calabar, Wolmer’s and Ardenne student‐athletes off on scholarship and guided Hansle Parchment to the Olympic gold medal in the 110‐ metre hurdles aer helping him through the University of the West Indies scholarship programme. At the same me, he took Bolt and Jermaine
Much like basketball superstars Kobi Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Lebron James did, Usain Bolt skipped college to join the professional athletic ranks.
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