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Champs title a ‘dream come true’ for Duane Johnson
March 31, 2026
Duane Johnson, head coach of Jamaica College's (JC) track and field programme, said bringing the Mortimer Geddes Trophy back to Old Hope Road in just his second year in charge was a dream come true.
Johnson served as the middle and long-distance coach at JC for the past decade, but was handed the reins in the summer of 2024 following the departure of Neil Harrison.
He explained he was not intimidated by the task of leading the historic school and said he was ready to bring glory back to JC.
"I feel good being in this new position, knowing that your hard work over the years has been recognised," Johnson told The STAR in January last year.
"To ensure we do much better, we've made changes starting this season. We're managing the talent we have, not just focusing on specific events but deploying talent across the board."
He fulfilled that promise when they finished atop the boys' standings with 345 points, ahead of fierce rivals Kingston College (KC), 282, and Calabar High, 169.3.
SURREAL
Following his triumph, Johnson said it was a dream come true to lead his charges to victory and is happy to celebrate their success with the school's community.
"It's been surreal," Johnson said. "Up to now as I'm talking I'm getting goosebumps.
"When I took this job, it's always been my dream to bring back the trophy home here at JC and I'm happy that in only my second year as head coach, I would have figured it out."
He continued, "We did the job and here we are this morning celebrating with the wider school community. I'm so happy to see the expressions of the youngsters here at JC and the teachers and the staff."
Johnson explained their triumph came from hard work, saying they followed the school's motto - 'Floreat Collegium, Fervet Opus in Campis', meaning 'May the College Flourish, Work is Burning in the Field'.
"We're just always focused on working, putting our plans in place and sticking to what we believe in and sticking to our faith," he continued.
"That's what our motto is all about. Work is burning in the field and we do our best to ensure that everything we do, we work very hard at it and this is the result."
STEADY HAND
JC had an impressive showing at Champs and by the third day, they were comfortably ahead of their competitors and opened a sizeable points gap.
Where others would have already called the title in their favour, Johnson said they remained focused on their task to ensure KC could not mount a comeback.
"I try to keep a steady hand and a steady way of doing this. I told my guys, look, we're not going to ease up because we know Kingston College, they have a specific fight in them," he insisted.
"My fear was that we're going to step off the gas and they were going to roll back. So how we treated these Champs was in a specific way that we're going to try and win each day," Johnson explained.
"So every day, we started the day with zero points and that was just my talk to the boys every single day."
Johnson said the target will now be on JC as the reigning champions, and they will be prepared to fight tooth and nail to defend their crown.
"Those preparations [for next year] started from last week to be honest. We knew that once we had the title, we are going to be the main target now, just like we targeted the defending champions."
