By TENAJH SWEETING
Tribune Sports Reporter
The Red-Line Athletics track club saw a few of their star athletes cross the stage at the St Augustine’s College graduation ceremony yesterday. The newest members of the class of 2023 celebrated their milestone in front of family, friends, and guardians at the Atlantis Imperial Ballroom. The Red-line Athletes included Alexis Brown Jr, Clinton Laguerre, Tumani Skinner, Johnathon Fowler, Ezthia Maycock, Jadyn Demeritte, and D’Angelo Collie. The athletes are preparing for the next step as they venture into early adulthood.
Tito Moss, head coach of Red-Line Athletics, talked about how proud he was of the class of 2023 athletes.
“I am really ecstatic and I am really proud of them,” Moss said. “What we are working on at Red-Line is to get as many of them as possible off to school. We have about 9 or 10 of them graduating and so far have gotten six of them sorted for college, so for us it’s good that they are finishing at this level and getting ready to matriculate to another level.”
One of the many athletes that will be studying abroad is Johnathon Fowler. The young athlete has had quite the year on and off the track. On the track, Fowler was one of the four members on the under 20 4x400m relay team that set a new Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) record earlier this year. Also, he competed at CARIFTA for the first time as part of the historic 80-member Team Bahamas. Recently, Fowler competed with his fellow clubmates at the 2023 Penn Relays in Philadelphia. However, the sprint athlete’s prowess did not only exist on the track as he graduated with honours (cumulative average 3.00 to 3.49).
Ezthia Maycock embodied the definition of a student athlete. She graduated with honours alongside Fowler and D’Angelo Collie, who also collected the award for Physics. Additionally, she won the 2023 academic award for religion. In sports, Maycock was a member of Team Bahamas and also competed at the Penn Relays for SAC’s 4x400m team.
She talked about how it felt to balance being both an astute student and focused athlete.
“I have learned to divide my time between school and practice,” she said. “Sometimes it could be stressful but I always had to remember my goals that I am working towards and to never give up.”
Ultimately, Maycock said it felt amazing to graduate and was glad that her journey was successful. She thanked the track club for allowing her to experience things she never had before and said she hopes to apply everything she learned at her school in life and college.
Tumani Skinner is known for his impressive stints at the 34th BAISS track and field championships and in the crowd-pleasing under 20 4x400m mixed relay at the 50th CARIFTA games. Skinner also participated in this year’s Penn Relays.
After participating as a Redline athlete for four years, he talked about the happiness surrounding his newest accomplishment and time at the track club.
“It feels great and I feel [a] huge relief of having finished my high school journey … Redline has molded me into a stellar athlete and allowed me to achieve things [that] I didn’t know were possible. It has taught me discipline and social skills,” he said.
He started off running the 100-metre and 200m races. However, as time progressed he added the 400m race to his arsenal and has broken records in that event and in the 4x100m relays. As he embarks on his new journey, the athlete will pursue a degree in environmental science while working hard to become a professional division one athlete. Skinner said that he is grateful to be a part of great institutions such as SAC and Redline and one day he will pass on the experience and knowledge that was given to him.
Similar to Fowler and Skinner, Clinton Laguerre is ready for the next step in his life journey. The SAC student contributed to breaking the under 4x100m BAISS record. Additionally, Laguerre represented SAC along with his teammates and schoolmates at the 2023 Penn Relays. He was also selected as a member of Team Bahamas once again.
Laguerre reminisced on his previous graduations leading up to the big one.
“I am very excited that I am walking out of the doors of high school I remember when I was walking on stage at my preschool graduation and here I am today walking on a bigger stage,” he said.
He added that although he is a Red-Line Athlete he is still grateful for his start with Star Trackers in the ninth grade upon his arrival from Abaco. Nonetheless, after joining Red-Line he felt very welcome and offered a special thanks to the coaching staff who encouraged and supported him every step of the way. Laguerre is now in pursuit of his studies in computer technology and information systems and will look to obtain his goal of being the first to acquire a degree in his family. He has not made a final decision on a college yet but is in correspondence with multiple coaches and universities.
Alexis Brown Jr joined Red-Line Athletics last year as a 400m and 800m distance runner. The 17-year-old represented the track club as one of 20 members at the Texas Tech High School in January. He talked about how it felt to finally be done with high school.
“I feel phenomenal, this has been on my mind since grade ten and to finally do it is unbelievable,” Brown said.
Although Brown has not made a decision on a college as yet, he said Redline Athletics has been keeping him on the right track and always stressed the importance of school for a track athlete, which made him want to be a better version of himself. Therefore, he thanked SAC and the track club for guiding him through his high school life.
“I know I want to major in computer science [and] I want to continue to strive to be the best version of myself whether on the track or off, my goal is to be the best Alexis I can be,” he said.
Coach Moss expects his athletes to now celebrate their newfound successes and believes some of them have a real chance to make it to the professional level. His last word of advice to them was continue to work hard, perfect their craft, and remain disciplined as the responsibility now belongs to them.