Ricketts guiding STETHS to new heights in the jumps
JUMPERS FROM St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) are off to flying starts this season after the first two weekends of track and field development meets.
Chloe Palmer, Richelle Stanley and Crystal Salmon among the girls, and male jumpers Ricoy Hunter and Rodeki Walters have had winning starts.
At the Pure Water/JC/R. Danny Williams Development meet at Jamaica College, Palmer and Stanley were first and second, respectively, in the Class One long jump with each getting up to 5.95 metres. In Class Two Salmon was first with 5.38m.
At t he JAAA/Puma Fuller/ Anderson meet, a week later at G. C. Foster College, Hunter won the Class One boys’ long jump event with 7.57m, while Walters was victorious in Class Two with 6.45m.
Top coach Kerry Lee Ricketts, who is in his second stint as coach of the jumpers at the school, is the man responsible for these very good early season results.
Ricketts is a household name in Jamaica in the coaching of the jumps after guiding his wife Shanieka Ricketts to glory in the triple jump with a Commonwealth Games title and silver medals at the World Athletics Championships. His qualifications includes certification from the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA) and he has also been a massage therapist for more than 20 years.
“This is my second stint at the school and it feels surreal as this is where it all started for me locally,” the now very experienced Ricketts said.
“After coaching for several years in the United Kingdom I returned home in 2007 and got involved with the STETHS programme, mainly strength and conditioning, and working with the track and field team. I have worked alongside Tasheka Hibbert, a former STETHS athlete and long jumper and a graduate of The Mico University College, since 2022. In the first year we had two medals in the long and high jumps for boys and girls. Last year was even better as we got four medals, two in long, one in triple jump and one in high jump,” Ricketts added.
Ricketts who has also coached at Rusea’s and Manchester High schools and guided Chanice Porter to gold at the World Youth Championships in the long jump and bronze in high jump.
He also had several success stories at STETHS in his first stint there. Sisters Rochelle and Racquel Farquharson, Rushelle Reid, Petagaye Reid and Opal James were some of his top athletes in the jumps.
He also did some coaching at The University of the West Indies where Daniel Garwood was four-time national high jump champion and Central American and Caribbean champion. Guyanese long jumper Emmanuel Archibald and the triple jumper Tamara Myers of The Bahamas are two international athlete she has coached in the past.
Ricketts is happy with the good early start by his STETHS jumpers, but he is not getting ahead of himself. He knows that there is still a lot of work ahead.
“I am immensely pleased with the performances so far especially Ricoy Hunter who has moved from 6.57m to a personal best 7.57m . We are, however, mindful that medals aren”t given away at Champs as they have to be earned. We will be doing our best to prepare our athletes to peak at the right time, bearing in mind we also have the World Junior Championships this year,”he said.
Ricketts is also preparing his wife Shaneika and Tissanna Hickling (l ong j ump) for the Olympic Games. Last year Hickling won the national senior title with a personal best of 6.85m.