Founded in September 1999 by Stephen Francis, Paul Francis, David Noel and Bruce James at Wolmer’s Boys’ School in Kingston, Jamaica, the MVP Track and Field Club was established to provide Jamaican athletes a Jamaican option for post high school track and field training. The goal then and now; to prove that Jamaican athletes, with Jamaican coaches, Jamaican facilities and Jamaican management, could be the very best in the world of Athletics.
Mission Statement
The 3 primary challenges to overcome were
- Pursuing a course of action that had not, up to that point, achieved material international success
- Garnering support, financial and otherwise, to achieve our stated goal
- Convincing Jamaica that the established route of our very best high school athletes accepting athletics scholarships to universities in the United States of America was not the only option and may NOT even be the BEST option for Jamaican athletes to follow
Goals
The founders of the MVP Track and Field Club therefore needed to find innovative ways of achieving the goal of developing the very best athletes in the world, right here in Jamaica.
These included →
- Establishing a formal relationship with a Jamaican University to provide education, accommodation and training facilities for athletes
- Increase the level of research into training international athletes
- All founders had to become certified as IAAF officials or IAAF coaches
- Targeting non-super star high school athletes to be members of our Club
- Leverage relationships in Corporate Jamaica
- Establish relationships with international entities involved in the world of athletics
- Committing significant personal financial resources to this vision