MILLS FOUND DESERVED GREATNESS LATE

Glen Mills shocked the local fraternity last week when he pretty much announced through the print media that he was stepping down as Jamaica’s head coach. Mills had been in that position for the past 22 years and he thinks its time for him to step aside.

Mills has served this country well for more than 40 years, developing some of Jamaica’s best schoolboy talent. Raymond Stewart, the youngest ever male sprinter to make an Olympic 100metres final was barely out of Camperdown High School when he made it to the final of the men’s sprint finals in Los Angeles back in 1984.

Stewart would go on to represent Jamaica well over the years. He was not as successful as the current crop of sprinters but he was consistently among the eight fastest men on the planet. Mills also helped develop other talented athletes who for one reason or the other did not go on to fulfil their potential. Everybody speaks about what a prodigious talent Leroy Reid was but injury would have a major say in his truncated career as a sprinter.

There were others like Carey Johnson and females like Rivoli Campbell, who promised much whilst they were under Mills’ guidance but who faded into the US Collegiate landscape like so many who had gone before them.

Coach Mills, who just last year was honoured for his excellence in the field of track and field, will now dedicate his time and energy to developing his own track club Racers’ and reap further richly deserved rewards as the coach of the fastest man who has ever lived, Usain Bolt.

Bolt is in many ways the reward that eluded Mills throughout his illustrious career. He never really had a breakout athlete, someone who transcended the sport, someone who redefined the way we looked at track and field.

Bolt himself was rewarded for having faith in Mills, after he struggled to hone his amazing talents under Fitz Coleman. Bolt had worked with Coleman for a couple years at the IAAF High Performance Centre but the latter was never able to get a handle on Bolt’s medical challenges and his focus. The youngster from Trelawny was on the verge of fading away like so many talented sprinters before him, distracted by the bright lights of the city and a misplaced belief that he could run with the best in the world on talent alone. That was until fate intervened and landed him on a platter to Coach Mills who it seemed was destined to guide the youngster to greatness.

It took a while but the two soon developed a solid relationship that has now blossomed until a partnership that now rules the world of athletics. Mills is the medium through which Bolt has achieved greatness and Bolt’s greatness will earn Mills a brighter, higher place in the annals of the history of track and field. He will be remembered as the man who took a diamond in the rough and made it shine brighter than any that had gone before.
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