Hawthorne with former Jago star Yohan Blake.

Despite a low-keyed performance heading into this month's local athletics showpiece, the ISSA Boys and Girls' Championships, St Jago coach Danny Hawthorne remains optimistic that his team will ruffle a few feathers.

ST Jago are one of two co-ed schools to win the boys' title at the even, doing so twice under Hawthorne, who is in his sixth straight year at the helm, but will have his hands full this time around if he hopes to give the Monk Street team a third title. Unlike previous years the team has not given a strong performance leading up to Champs.

Hawthorne, however, is very optimistic following his team's performances since the Gibson relays.

"I am very pleased with what I have seen at the past two meets, Central Championships and G.C.Foster Classics, and the boys have shown improvement," said Hawthorne, who has produced top athletes like Yohan Blake and Nickeal Ashmeade.

focused

"Unlike previous years, the guys now are not as focused and are not as committed and this is the reason for the team not performing as expected so far, but the coaching staff has had some serious meetings with the teams of late and we are seeing more commitment," said Hawthorne.

"We have athletes who have great ability and as long as they decide to work hard anything can happen, as I tell them that everybody is equal and I do not want to put any team or athletes above them, as if they are serious and willing to work hard they can achieve whatever they want to," said Hawthorne who did not want to single out any athlete, but agreed that most of his points will come from the middle distance.

"Over the past couple of years, our athletes have been going through a lot because of the negative external distraction around them and to remain among the top teams is a great achievement," said Hawthorne.

However, going into Champs Hawthorne has very serious concerns.

"I think that some of the past athletes who have done well over the past few years for the school should come in and at least give the athletes a pep talk going into the Championships."