The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

After his contract was expired as an assistant coach at the University of Georgia, coach George Cleare is back home and he has already relaunched his High Performance Management Team that he hopes will one day rival local clubs based in Jamaica.

Cleare, back home since November, has officially started with new national men’s 400 metre record holder Steven Gardiner and Lanece Clarke as the marquee male and female athletes. He has also added elite athlete Andretti ‘Da Bahamian Dream’ Bain and Jamal Moss as well as hurdler Tiavannia Thompson and a few developmental athletes in sprinters Charles Richardson and Gena Patton.

Eventually, Cleare said it’s his goal to include some top notch international athletes, who will be coming to town to train in the coming months in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“We wanted to do something a little different because after every season, you want to assess where you want to go as a programme and what you need to do to get better,” Cleare said. “In going over everything, the first thing I do is I look at myself in the mirror and I go back over the programme for the year and I try to see where I could have done things little different or better.

“I want to make sure that the athletes are better prepared and one variable that stood out was that training in North Georgia in Athens in January, February and March without an indoor facility was not possible to get into the type of shape that you want because we are running into 30 and 40 degree weather. So every time we got into the outdoor season, we were a little behind because of the weather and not being able to do everything that we wanted to do.”

No longer at the University of Georgia where he spent the past five years, Cleare said he was able to put together a management team that he brought home to take advantage of the weather so that they can do the volume and quality of work that is needed, training in warm weather.

“Even before I went to the US to work, my goal was always to develop an elite training programme at home. It was a rough road, but I think that the five years that I’ve been away, it’s been an opportunity for me to grow and get better,” he said. “It afforded me the opportunity to learn the business side of the sport and not just looking at it from a coach’s standpoint.

“So I think with me getting much better with my coaching experience and getting more connections with international contacts, I think it’s easier for me to create that training programme that I always envisioned, which is like my second time around at it, so I’m hoping to get the kind of results that we need. This time, I have the support of a management group, the medical side and a better quality of athletes and my reputation has given better with some of the successes that I’ve had working in the NCAA and producing some world class athletes, so I’m looking for some better things in 2016.”

Since getting started, HPMT has utilised the facilities at the Winton Rugby Pitch, as well as the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, Goodman’s Bay, the Paradise Island bridges and the Queen’s Staircase.

Mimicking the standard set by Jamaica, Cleare said he’s looking forward to getting both Gardiner and Bain to run this weekend in the men’s 300 metres when the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations opens its 2016 calendar with the Odd Distance Track Meet at the stadium, starting at noon.

“I have an obligation to allow the younger athletes to see that it’s possible for them to see their stars do well right at home and not just on TV,” Cleare said. “We will use it as a benchmark to see exactly where we are in training and it will give the younger athletes the opportunity to see two of the top Bahamian stars compete at home.”

For Bain, there’s nothing like getting a good home cooked meal and spending time with his wife, volleyball player Cheryse Bain, as he trains and works from home and also operates their sports and lifestyle nutrition store called ‘Da Bahamian Dream,’ located on Farrington Road and Gregory Street.

“Since I’ve been home for the past three years, I’ve been training with coach (Fritz) Grant and Ramon Miller was training with coach (Tyrone) Burrows,” Bain said. “But they are both working full time and so their schedules won’t allow us to train as we would if we were in the United States.

“We were hoping that the Bahamas Government would have granted some concessions for either one of them can take on coaching full time so that they won’t have to worry about their careers, but rather they can be coaching full time. But that never happened.”

With Cleare home and being a full time coach, Bain said he hopes this can open the door for more coaches to become full time coaches just like they do in Jamaica where they have the incentives to focus on coaching full time.

“So far, it’s been going very good. We are about seven weeks into it,” Bain said. “We have a great group. It’s very intense, it’s very focused. We work extremely hard, but we also have a lot of fun along the way and that kind of helps. Me and Steven Gardiner, along with Jamal Moss, are pushing each other every day.

“We have also seen Debbie Ferguson, who came here to train with us on a recent break and we have some other female athletes like Lanece Clarke. We are all focused on that same goal, which is to get ready for the Olympics and more importantly, get a medal in Rio. So we keep each other accountable.”

With a motto: “All we see is fast times and no short cuts and no days of,” Bain said they have to be committed to putting in the time and work because all of their counterparts around the world are doing the same thing to get themselves ready to compete in Rio in August.

“We’re starting off with World Indoors. We’re trying to make that team there and then go into the Olympics,” Bain said. “Our national trials for the Olympics is in June, so I will definitely want to get a top three spot so that I can run the open quarter at the Olympics. Once that’s done, then I can focus on the 4 x 400 metre relay.

“So for me, it’s really just getting a top three position at the trials in June so that I can run the open quarter at the Olympics. I expect that it will take about 44 seconds to be able to do that because we have such a great group of guys right now running the 400. So those are pretty much my two main goals.”

Based on what he’s seen at the IAAF World Championships last year in Beijing, China, Bain said he will definitely have to go low 44s to be competitive and around 43 to be a medal contender.

“I still believe that I can still compete with the best in the world. I still believe that I am one of the best in the world. I just had a lot of challenges over the last few years,” he said. “But this year, training has been going extremely well, so I don’t anticipate having any of those challenges anymore. So I’m really looking forward to this season.”

Bain, 30, was a member of the silver medal Olympic team in Beijing in 2007, gold medallist on the relay team at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2007 and silver medallist on both relay teams that competed at the Central American and Caribbean Games in 2010 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico and the CAC Championships in Cali, Colombia in 2008.

Two years ago, Bain was inducted into Oral Roberts University’s Hall of Fame as a 2008 indoor and outdoor NCAA national champion, who set numerous school and conference records on his way to being an 11-time American in the 200, 400 and 400m hurdles. He even went undefeated during his sting at ORU in the 400m in their conference.