Jade Adderley: On A Fast Track To Success
[Written by Patrick Bean]
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” ― Christopher McDougall, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
It may not be on account of such extreme life and death scenarios of the deserts, grasslands, and savannahs of Africa that Jade Adderley takes to the track, it is with the intention of staying ahead of chase packs containing ravenous, spiked foes of the human variety that he diligently trains.
Once likened to the fleet-footed antelope by a former youth football coach, the 16-year-old student/athlete at Darlington School in Rome, Georgia was encouraged to forsake the popular team sport for track and field, where he could isolate and better hone his talent as a middle distance runner.
Not wanting to abandon the team concept, Adderley initially aligned himself with Pacers Track Club, where he came under the guidance of former Bermuda Marathon Derby champion Jay Donawa, before commencing studies overseas last year.
The budding athlete, who competes in 400, 800, 1600 and cross-country for the highly regarded independent boarding school, has enjoyed his tenure at the institution, developing new acquaintances while advancing his educational and athletic capacities.
“Being at Darlington has provided a varied experience,” said Adderley, the son of Bermuda Skyport Corporation president Aaron Adderley and Joquina Adderly, a real estate agent and endurance athlete. “You have students from all over the world gathered at one small campus.
“There are so many people here that I never thought I would meet and it’s also helping me to prepare for college, as it gives me a lot of real-world exposure and an increased level of independence.”
Along with running and football, Adderly has a history with aquatics.
“I trained with Dolphins Swim Team of Bermuda and I’ve also trained with Ms Shona [Palmer] at Harbour Swim Club.
“I also did a lot of football with Devonshire colts,” explained Adderly, who attended Harrington Sound Primary and Bermuda Institute up until his sophomore year. “I played there for three seasons or rather I did a lot of training there but not a lot of matches, so I’ve only played competitive seasons, but it’s something I just like to do.
“When Covid came around everything just shut down and there was no football, no swimming, so I really had to find a way to keep myself occupied and that is when I started running.
My mom is actually a marathoner. She’s done the New York Marathon many times as well as Boston and Bermuda.
“She suggested I try running, so I did some runs with her and that’s really where my running came to fruition. I did during Covid before classes and everything and I have continued to ever since.
“I remember I had a talk with my football coach and, because I wasn’t really consistent with football and was a bit behind in terms of my technical ability, but my running and pace was always top notch.
“I’m a person who always wants to improve and do better and coach Famous said, ‘Jade, you run like a gazelle,’ and he inspired me to do track.
“I took his advice and did track more and more and it has helped to get me to where I am today.”
Having proven himself in the pool and on the track, it might seem logical that Adderly delve into the triathlon arena, where Flora Duffy has indelibly stamped the island on the international scene, but, while having some interest in the three-pronged sport, the youngster insisted his primary focus is finding ways to increase how he alternates one foot in front of the other on the ground.
After competing on the varsity cross country team, at present he is competing as a member of the track squad, where he has regularly placed in the top three at several regional track and field events, however Adderly’s goals go well beyond Rome and an advanced position for a high school track team.
“My best in the 400 is around 54 or 55 and then for the 1600 I run a 436.
“CARIFTA has always been a dream of mine and I have a dream of representing Bermuda at the Olympics,” said Adderly, who has a personal best in the 400 metres of between 54 and 55 seconds and has run 4 minutes, 36 seconds in the 1,600 metres. “As far as CARIFTA, the goal was to do it last year, but I had some difficulties.
“This year, I also had some difficulties. I’ve spoken with the BNAA [Bermuda National Athletics Association] about CARIFTA, but it didn’t happen this year and I just have to keep working and working hard and we’re going to get there next year for sure.”
Counted among those the runner aspire to imitate in his chosen field of athletics is top Bermudian distance runner Daje Minors, who trains at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire and recently clocked 3:59.35 in the mile, establishing a new Bermuda record in the mile.
Donawa is another, while American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, a hurdler and sprinter who competes in the 400 meters hurdles and is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion and 2022 World champion, with a world record time of 50.68 seconds, likewise stands as a role model.
“Dage Minors is an athlete I look up,” said Adderly. “He’s a very humble man who has his own goals and is very determined, very motivated and is someone I always see on the roads running and he’s really inspired me.
“Sydney McLaughlin has broken many records at Olympic trials and at the Olympics. I have followed her career ever since she was 16, so I am a big fan of hers at how she humbles herself.
“Part of being an athlete is knowing how good you are and knowing where you can improve, so I feel that both Dage Minors and Sydney McLaughlin are very humble athletes and I aspire to be like them and hopefully be able to set records like they have.
“Mr Donawa I look up to. He has trained me while I was at Pacers and helped me to develop my craft. He was always hard on me and told me where I had room to improve and he always made me come and train every day.”
For inspiration and instruction off of the track Adderly needed go no farther than down the hallway of his Devil’s Hole residence to find his dad, a respected leader in the corporate world, as well as the local island community in general.
“I’m interested in a lot of things, primarily business and aviation,” said Adderly, who is already investigating various colleges and universities around the United States, that will aid in the advancement of his athletic and career goals. “Obviously my dad is associated with that and my mom as well.
“I also have an interest in economics and psychology. Me being in boarding school is to get a feel for what I want to be in life along with athletics, so I feel like I’ve made this step for things both on and off the track.
“I’m trying to see what I want to be and where I want to go in life.”
As a young Black male, Adderly is aware of many of the pitfalls that have become all too routine in Bermuda and globally, with many of his peers aborting education opportunities and normal, mainstream life in favour of getting involved in gangs, drugs, crime and other form of anti-social behaviour.
He admitted to having endured the peer pressure tactics common among youth, but with strength of family, sound upbringing, faith and a desire to achieve and contribute in positive manners, such was never accepted as a viable route for his own life.
“I have friends that have been associated with making poor choices, but coming up my dad has been a key force in shaping my development into a young adult,” said Adderly, who’s career interests, like his father include the field of aviation, but also take in business and psychology. “I truly try to do what he he did as a young person, because he was in the same predicament as I am as a young person.
“He had the same sort of friends who followed the wrong road, but sports can really structure your mind and allow you to set your own goals as to where you want to be and can help to keep you focused.
“As a student athlete you rarely have a lot of free time, so I really have no other choice but to go this way and I believe that track has really helped me to stay on the right path.
“It has also helped me to pick up my grades and has helped me to be more of an all-around person and helps me to stay disciplined. Especially on those days when I do not feel like working out or going to the track, it keeps me disciplined. Because every day I know that I’m striving to reach a goal and that’s what keeps me on the right path.
Asked what advice he would give those tempted toward nefarious activity, Adderly suggested that young people follow their instincts, as well as the positive instruction of positive people.
“I would say to follow your instincts,” he offered. “I would think that many of those of the adolescent age group have experienced peer pressure.
“You should follow your gut. Follow what your instincts are telling you and do the right thing.
“I know that it’s easy to say that when one is in a good position, but sports are something that can really keep what motivated.
“So, I would say that to try and stay on the right path one should try to associate yourself with people who are going to take you to the next level.
“Me, personally, I associate myself with people that are going to drive me to be where I want to be.
“The people who you surround yourself with other people you are going to become.
“There is this quote that, ‘If you surround yourself with four millionaires, you’re bound to be the fifth.’
“So, if you surround yourself with four gang bangers, you’re bound to be the fifth – which do you want to be.”
