Waight to be worth it for duo

DENNIS Waight knows fast and he knows fired-up because he was the fitness trainer barking at famed West Indian pacemen Michael Holding and Joel Garner to do 500 sit-ups a day.

DENNIS Waight knows fast and he knows fired-up because he was the fitness trainer barking at famed West Indian pacemen Michael Holding and Joel Garner to do 500 sit-ups a day.

He remains one of the wonderful characters of the Windies’ dynasty because for more than two decades he was often at the end of curious finger-pointing: ‘‘Who’s the white guy?”

He pushed fitness from his first morning with Clive Lloyd’s West Indians when he linked with them in Perth in 1977 for World Series Cricket.

Dennis Waight Jr with his dad. Picture: AAP

The larrikin trainer they never thought would wake in time after a night at the hotel bar had done a 12km run by 6am before he pushed the unfit bunch on the road to the top.

His love affair with the Caribbean literally turned into married life with his Jamaican wife Ann and they now live on the Gold Coast.

Dennis, 18, their powerfully framed son, is making a name for himself in the centres for Brisbane Grammar in GPS rugby and with selection for the Australian Schoolboys squad.

It was easy to see his rugby league pedigree from the Runaway Bay Seagulls with two big bursts into space in the 17-5 loss to Churchie last weekend.

A neat little short pass put him into the first hole but the Grammar inside backs were lacking in craft to give their biggest back more chances.

Waight Sr has a firm view on schoolboy fitness: “They are footballers not weightlifters because you don’t want rigid bodies but flexible, skilful ones.”