Named in memory of the late Jersey Spartan AC president and established with the backing of his fiancée, Lucille Monks, the academy has been set up this month to provide track and field hopefuls with a ‘structured pathway’ to personal success at national and international events.
Jersey 2015 long and triple jump medallist Ross Jeffs is the man charged with overseeing the academy’s scholars – which include a host of Island and Youth Commonwealth Games veterans – and, with Monks’ support, he is now keen to raise the bar even further at FB Fields with his professional approach.
‘We want to make sure that the sport gets better and it will be an ongoing process to try and put Jersey on the world map. It would make Richard proud looking down to see the work he started hasn’t been in vain.’
Jeffs, who has previously worked with World and Olympic champion Greg Rutherford’s coach, Jonas Dodoo, and Australian Rugby World Cup hopeful Dean Mumm, said: ‘The main thing here is proper coaching. Once athletes get to under-17 there’s no pathway for them, but I can provide that for them using experience from the coaches I’ve worked with. We can also put other services in place like strength and conditioning, nutrition and therapy support, and the academy will pay for that. So if athletes get injured they can get seen straight away, which is what you need if you’re performing in high level sport.
‘It’s about changing the mindset and the amateur attitude. Instead of only training two times a week and just going for Island Games, we want more of a culture where they don’t come here to be average; they come to take their own performance up to the next level and aim for the Commonwealth Games and national championships.
‘A big thing about the academy is making it athlete-led and giving them responsibility for their own development. We encourage them to become students of their sport so they know everything about it – the biomechanics, the physiology – so when they go to university they’re in an ideal place to be able to manage their training process, regardless of what coach they have.’
There have been concerns that the presence of a sponsored academy would detract from the work of JSAC’s volunteers, but Jeffs believes it is what is required to draw out the athletes’ full potential.
He continued: ‘This is what I’m qualified in and this is what I’m good at. If I worked “nine to five” I wouldn’t have time to plan or to give the athletes the time they need, and if there’s no finances behind it it’ll just be in a volunteer capacity, which isn’t enough to push performance on and take athletes to the next level.
‘The sport would collapse if you didn’t have volunteers, though, and they are all part of the plan, but you also need people at the next level.
‘Lucille wanted to push support for under privileged people who may not be able to afford trips away and medical help, and it’s open to anyone who wants it as long as they have enough commitment and drive to get better.’
Jeffs added: ‘Gold Coast 2018 may be a bit close, but if we continue it on to 2022 I think that around 90 per cent of Jersey’s Commonwealth Games athletes will be from the academy.’
