Dyke predicts another Edwin Allen Champs victory
Published:Thursday | February 17, 2022 | 12:10 AMRaymond Graham/Gleaner Writer
AFTER A dominant performance at last Saturday’s Milo Western Relays where they had a perfect record, winning all seven relays, head coach of Edwin Allen High School’s female team, Michael Dyke, is super confident that come early April, The Mortimer Geddes title for girls will remain in Frankfield, Clarendon.
“Despite what people may say that big teams like St Jago and Hydel High were absent, Edwin Allen is poised and ready for their ninth and eighth straight title at Champs,” said a very confident Dyke, a day after his team’s onslaught at the meet at G. C. Foster College.
Even though both St Catherine bigwigs were absent, Edwin Allen was expected to get some competition from former heavyweights Holmwood Technical, but this was not to be as the team from Manchester was comprehensively upstaged by the Clarendon-based Boys and Girls’ Championships team.
“After starting our preparation very late this season, and with teams like Holmwood starting their preparation much earlier, I was expecting some form of competition from them, but this was not to be and this was a big disappointment as we needed some challenge,” continued Dyke.
“The objective was to look and see where we were because of our late start and to use the opportunity to look on our relay teams and try to build their confidence going into competition for the remainder of the season, and that was achieved as I liked how they gelled,” said Dyke, pointing to the performances of his Class IV and Class I 4x100 and 4x800m groups.
Still, there are some concerns.
“We are a bit behind in our sprint hurdles and our Class II group where a few have niggling injuries, but I am confident that these areas will be fixed before Championships,” he said.
With Hydel High’s Brianna Lyston in fantastic form so far this season, there are many who think that the former St Jago star can dominate the Clayton twins like she did five years ago in Class IV. Those pundits see Hydel as a big threat but Dyke says he is not fazed.
“Both girls, especially Tina, are warriors and are champions and I am not worried at all. I do not watch what they do now as they are big-time performers and will deliver when it matters most. I have been hearing for the past four or five years that we were going to lose to teams like St Jago, Hydel and Holmwood and we have always come through, and this year will be no different,” said Dyke.