The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net Despite the exit of their nationally renowned head coach Fritz Grant, the CH Reeves Raptors claimed the 19th Government Secondary Schools Sports Association (GSSSA) Junior High School Championships, retaining their fourth straight title. Lenora Conyers led the Raptors to their fourth consecutive title - the first of the post Fritz Grant era - with a total of 644.20 points. Grant is now at Government High School. The AF Adderley Tigers finished second with 521.20 points followed by the HO Nash Lions in third with 494 points, SC McPherson Sharks with 405 points and TA Thompson Scorpions rounding out the top five finishers with 385.20 points. DW Davis finished sixth with 366 points, LW Young, the last school to beat the Raptors back in 2007, was seventh with 336.50 points while Anatol Rodgers rounded out the field with 308.50 points. The Raptors captured just one division when they took the junior boys with 136 points. However, they finished second in the remaining five divisions. The Tigers won the bantam girls division while the Lions took the boys' category. In the junior divisions, the Tigers took the girls while, in the intermediate division, the Lions took the girls and Pitbulls the boys. In the bantam boys' division, the Raptors' 79 points were just two shy of the Lions who totalled 81. In the junior division, their 115 points were just 10 shy of the Tigers' 125 while in the intermediate boys, they fell just 3.80 points shy of the Pitbulls' 119 Conyers said her team, which includes Varell Davis, Marilyn Toote, Jason Woodside, and Catrez Wells, cultivated the deep talent pool at the school. "It feels great. We had a good team of coaches in place. Mr Grant left a lot of things in place, he didn't keep his knowledge to himself so we were able to grasp some things. The same system, same things we have been doing over the years, we were able to keep doing it," she said. "The children really made it happen today. We had a few kids that did not show up and everyone filled in and performed well." Conyers said the win felt special for the effort of the student-athletes at the school and their performance over the course of the two-day meet. "It is great to win this one. No one expected us to get this one. They said Mr Grant is gone so they were looking to see what would be happening with this team now. It's the children that really get it done. As coaches, we show them how to do things but once they come out, we just ask for them to perform at the best of their ability and that is what the team did out here today. "Nationals is a short time from now. Next week, we are going to pick out our best athletes we have now. We'll be ready for nationals next week," she said. "The competition was keen. HO Nash and AF Adderley gave us a push on day one and we didn't know where we stood at the end of the day. Our junior division really pulled us through, they did us proud." One record fell on the final day of competition when the Raptors' bantam girls team (Abrianne Clarke, Amanda Clarke, Quintonique Poitier and Stevanya Newland) set a new mark of 4:51.10s in the 4x400m. They surpassed the old record of 4:53.40s set in 2009 by SC McPherson.