The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH Dianne Woodside-Johnson taking a break from coaching and the Club Monica Track Club, assistant coach Tito Moss has formed the Red Line Athletics Track Club, the newest club to join the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations.

Moss, a former distance runner at St Augustine’s College, said with some of the athletes, including his daughter Megan, Adrian Curry, Denvaughn Wyhmns and Jardian Thurston, preparing for CARIFTA next year, he decided to ensure that they have the continuity in their training.

“After I decided to just train a small group of athletes, more athletes have asked if they could join,” Moss said.

“So what I did, I got a constitution drafted for the requirements for the BAAA and I wrote out the goals and philosophies of the club and started to put it together. It just built from there.”

As a new club, the BAAA will place the Red Line Athletics on probation for a year.

The club will be based at St Augustine’s College and will include some athletes that don’t compete for the Big Red Machine.

“The name Red Line Athletics is not just a coincidence,” Moss said. “It goes with St Augustine’s College.”

With about 22 athletes involved, Moss will be assisted by Jason Edwards, a level four jumps coach and the head of the Athletic Department at St Augustine’s College.

“We would expect the senior kids who have been doing some work with me with core and fitness to continue to excel,” Moss said. “At the same token, they are also going on collegiate visits so I am helping them to navigate their choices.

“In addition to that, we have some younger kids who are in the seventh, eighth and 10th grades like Otto Laing and Shamar Bain, who we hope to make the CARIFTA team next year. So hopefully they can make that spring to the next level.”

Although Club Monica Track Club will still be in existence, Woodside-Johnson indicated that she decided to take a break from coaching and has given her blessing to Moss and Edwards in the formation of their new club.

“I’ve learned a lot from Dianne and I hope to tailor it and craft some of my own philosophies that I have learnt over the years and we will continue to encourage these kids to develop their mind, body and physical fitness.”

With some of the top athletes in the club on the verge of graduating in 2019 and entering college, Moss said they will be pursuing universities in the United States where Bahamians Rolando ‘Lonnie’ Greene and Norbert Elliott are the head coaches.

“We are going on a collegiate visit to Kentucky in November to the University of Kentucky where Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie is an assistant under Lonnie Greene and sprinter Divine Parker is a freshman,” Moss said.

“We’ve already had about 25 coaches who contacted me about Adrian Curry and about 24 about Megan. So it’s a lot for us to consider. We can only go on five visits and I’m also trying to assist other athletes like Oscar Smith and Raymond Oriaki. I’m using this opportunity to help as many people because Megan can only go to one college.”

Woodside-Johnson, an accounts teacher at St Augustine’s College, is considering how she will be able to assist the Big Red Machine athletic team. However, she wished Moss and the Red Line Athletics every success in their new venture.

“I wish him the best and I wish the athletes the best,” Woodside-Johnson said.

At the time of taking a break from coaching, Woodside-Johnson had about 60-70 athletes registered in Club Monica that was established about 15 years ago - in May 2003 - in honour of her now deceased mother, Monica Woodside.

Woodside-Johnson, a level five certified coach, was the first Bahamian female to coach at both the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2017 International Amateur Athletic Federation’s World Championships, the latter of which she served as the head coach.