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Coach David Levy has instilled a philosophy of belief in his athletes, enabling Holy Childhood High School to attain their best result ever at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships (Champs) last year.

In his first year, the youthful Levy used his belief doctrine to guide the Half-Way Tree-based Holy Childhood to 16 points and 17th place at Champs last year, with the athletes adopting the ideology.

"Belief is the philosophy I have brought into this team, as I try to tell them that once they believe in themselves, anything is possible, and the word BELIEF has been printed on their shirts," said Levy.

Last year, Holy Childhood's position at Champs was from the contributions of Abigail Wolfe and Sheneal Henry. Wolfe won their first gold medal at Champs by capturing the Class Two girls' 100 metres before finishing fourth in the 200 metres for a healthy 14 points.

Henry finished seventh in the Class Two girls' 1,500 metres, providing two more valuable points and just missed out on scoring in the Open girls' 3,000 metres after a ninth-place finish.

According to Levy, the success of Wolfe and Henry has further emboldened Holy Childhood's athletes.

"They saw what Abigail and others did and are confident of replicating those results, which has helped to give them a lot of confidence. They are really taking the training seriously, and I expect some good results from the team," Levy said.

Wolfe, Henry and two other members from last year will not be wearing the colours of Holy Childhood this season, as they are now attending Wolmer's Girls' School, but Levy, at a recent visit by STAR Sports to their Skibo Avenue base, was not perturbed.

"It is a big loss, yes, but I do not think this will affect how the other girls perform this season, as they are willing to use those losses as motivation to perform this season," said Levy.

He, however, emphasised that the athletes were not coaxed into leaving Holy Childhood.

"I must categorically say that Wolmer's did not recruit these girls, as they left on their own, possibly knowing that Wolmer's has a bigger programme than Holy Childhood and wanting to reach a higher level. They think competition in training will do more for them there," said Levy, who had a short stint working at St Catherine High School with the boys' programme.

On the visit to Holy Childhood, several enthusiastic girls were in a training session. Levy pointed out Mikaylah Shekleford in Class Three and co-captain Sashgaye Williams in Class Two as two of his main prospects this season in the sprints.

Both athletes competed at the recent On Di Run Sprint Fest in the 200 metres, where Williams was fourth in her heat and 13th overall in a personal best of 26.78 seconds. Sheckleford was second in her heat in 26.66 seconds for eighth overall.

Those performances have inspired both athletes. They anticipate doing well later this season.

"My performance at Champs last year was okay, but I want to do very well this season, and I have been training a bit harder this year," said Sheckleford.

Williams said: "As one of the team captains, I want to lead from the front, and I am very confident that I can do better than last year, as I hope to use my performance to inspire the other girls."