November 9, 2011
Legends of Excelsior….. Debbie Byfield.
Legends of Excelsior….. Debbie Byfield.
by D. Coombs
Today Debra (Debbie) Byfield is known primarily as the unassuming Business Manager of the Excelsior Alumni Association of Florida but alumni of another era remember her as one who bestrode the world of high school track and field like a colossus.
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| '72 Olympian/XLCRian - Debbie Byfield |
More than three decades after her days as a dazzling Excelsior track star, the passage of time seems to have rested gently on Debbie, judging by her still alluring beauty, an extremely refined and chiseled face and a taut physique sculpted from a disciplined exercise regime which includes a daily 5 mile run.
It is a routine to which she has held fast more than forty years since she first graced the track at the annual Girls Athletics Championship in Jamaica adorned in the green and gold standard of Excelsior High School.
First introduced to the track by teacher trainees who were interning at her school, Maxfield Park Primary School, Debbie stamped her mark as a track and field prodigy when, in her first organized race, she totally annihilated the competition, which comprised a mixed group of boys and girls.
“I remember not hearing a sound and I thought something was wrong, I turned to look behind me and I was so far ahead and had no idea how I got there (of course that did not sit well with the boys)” she recounted in a recent interview with xlcrflorida.com.
Debbie’s introduction to Excelsior was inauspicious as she was not successful when she sat the Common Entrance Examination. But her mother, Mrs. Maud Byfield, being a great admirer of Excelsior’s Founder, Mr. A. W. Powell, was adamant that her daughter would attend no other school but the Mountain View Avenue institution. In 1966 Debbie enrolled as a fee-paying student.
It was at Excelsior that her track career blossomed under the stewardship, inspiration and faith of early mentor and games mistress Myrtle Robertson (now Cross) and the guidance of Coach Carl Bradshaw whom she regarded as a good tough coach despite his unorthodox training methods.
“Track was an outlet” she recalled “It gave me a reason to stay at school which was like a sanctuary to me and where I was happiest”
If Debbie was happy then her competitors in the 100m at Girls Champs must have been extremely sad as she would routinely leave them in her wake, sometimes breaking the tape more than 10 meters ahead of her closest rival. Debbie was an extremely gifted athlete and led her alma mater to the first three of four straight Girls’ Championships (1970 to 1973) during an era when Excelsior was an undisputed power in high school track and field.
During that time Excelsior was the unrivalled royalty of Girls Champs and Debbie was its queen. Such was Debbie’s early promise that in 1969, not yet 14 years old, she was drafted into the Jamaica’s team to represent the country at an international competition in Cuba. Debbie contested the 220 yard sprint which she duly won. She was also part of Jamaica’s team at the 1970 Central American & Caribbean Athletic championships hosted by Jamaica.
More recognition was to follow in later years as she was selected to represent Jamaica at the 1972 Olympic in Munich, Germany, as part of the 4x400m & 4x100m quartets. Debbie was one of only 2 Jamaican school girls (incidentally the other, 17 year old Andrea Bruce, now a prominent pediatrician, was also an Excelsorian) selected in a squad of 21 (10 men and 11 women) to attend the Olympics. She regards this as the high point of her athletic career because even though only a school girl, she was given the prestigious anchor leg on the Jamaica 4x100M relay team.
But it was for another event which these games were also memorable as The Olympics unfolded against the background of the worst case of violence in Olympic history since the modern games began in 1896. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict again played out on the world stage when members of the Israeli team were massacred by a group of terrorists who had infiltrated the Olympic Village.
“I met the only female Israeli athlete in Munich” Debbie recalls nearly four decades later. “My parents were socially conscious individuals so I was probably the only athlete who had a great understanding of (or cared about) what was going on with Israeli and Palestinians at the time.”
Debbie retired from Track and Field in 1980, after years of representing Jamaica at various events, during which time she continued to bring esteem to her alma mater and contributed to the school’s long history of track & field success.
Excelsior’s excellence in track and field dates back to the days of iconic Olympian Dr Arthur Wint, but Debbie rues the fact that this is a legacy that is not widely known to many of the current and more recent generations of Excelsorians who have no access to stories of Excelsior past glory.
“We try to tell the students when we speak to them that Excelsior has a tradition of brilliance in track and field that goes back years” Debbie said.
The wild celebrations in 2009 when Excelsior won its first medal at Girls Champs in more than a decade still engenders a wry smile among alumni who recall when Excelsior was the standard bearer of girls’ athletics in Jamaica.
Since hanging up her spikes Debbie has devoted herself to giving back to her alma mater through her service to the Excelsior Alumni Association of Florida. The 1972 graduate said her involvement was spurred by her life-long dream of having an evaluation center at XLCR, because of she was afflicted with a learning disability which was not discovered until she was in college.
“I believe anybody can learn with the right help. I am big believer in Mr. Powell's philosophy. Everybody deserves an education, doesn't matter where you are from” she said.
Debbie is also heartened that the current crop of athletes is actually able to make a decent living from athletics and hopes they will remain grounded and clean and enjoy this short time in the limelight. It is a dream she holds particularly dear for those athletes at Excelsior.
Many are hoping that dreams of Excelsior again crossing the threshold into renewed prominence in track and field will hopefully not prove to be bridge too far, with inspiration and support from alumni like Debbie and the work of DASH Athletics and other supporters of the cause.