By: Neville Muir
WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – Petersfield High School over the years has always excelled in Sports and has produced persons who have made National teams. Petersfield has now made a name for themselves in Track and Field and great things are expected of them now and for the future.
Petersfield High School Track and Field team is the brain child of PE teacher and coach Machell Woolery.
Woolery’s love and commitment to this discipline saw him creating the platform for something historic and successful 11 years ago. Then, he only had 9 boys but not to be deterred his first team to National Boys and Girls Championships saw themselves copping medals.
The team continued to work and it was no surprise that they dominated the different track meets in the western region. Woolery with no resources and through sweats and the desire to be successful led his team to a 7th place finish in 2015 at the National Championships amassing a total 50 points, the only school in Westmoreland to finish in the top 10. Woolery and his dedicated support staff inclusive of Shernette Noble( Track Manager), Peta-Gay Davey-Rowe( Public Relations Coordinator) and Seanah Noble Sibbles(Asst. Track Manager) were determined to take the team to their first ever Penn Relays held in Pennsylvania yearly.
With the generous efforts of Team Jamaica Bikkle and friends our dream of going to our first Penn Relays was realized. We are forever grateful indeed. We really appreciate the hospitality.The boys 4 by 400m relay team made it to the Championships of America Final and finished 7th. The 4 by 100m team also made it to the small schools final.
It is often times said that encouragement sweetens labour as the Petersfield Track and Field students continued to train harder even on public holidays they would be at school camping and training. The Western Championships saw a number of records broken in both field and Track Events. Sanjae Lawrence( Boy’s captain) smashed the old shot put record formerly held by a past Petersfield High School athlete. Antonio Watson erased the records in the class 3 400m as well as the class 3 shot put event. The girls team was not outdone by the boys as they were third place finishers at the Championships securing for themselves the same position as the boys.
As the school’s motto states..”to the stars through bolts and bars” this was etched in the minds of the athletes who secured the most ever medals ( 4 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze), the most points ever (70) and the highest position ever (6th place) at the recently held National Boys and Girls Championships. Petersfield Track Team continues to be a force to be reckoned with. Our very own Daniel Cope continues to dominate his events as he got gold in both the class 2 Shot put and discus events and is now the National Record Holder in the Discus event for his class. In addition to that, the small girls team garnered their most points ever at the National Championships finishing 15th overall.
It is our desire to again make an appearance at the Penn Relays, however we are faced with financial constraints and are therefore reaching out to past students, friends, well wishers and track and field enthusiasts to help us make our dream a reality.
Friends of Petersfield High, Friends of Westmoreland, Friends of Jamaica can donate by visiting https://www.gofundme.com/petersfieldpenn
