'Together, each achieves more' - Bell hails STGC team spirit
Published:Monday | November 5, 2018 | 12:00 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
This season, St George's College has been flying under the radar and has not create the usual buzz that normally surrounds their team. However, unlike teams before this St George's College side, they don't have very outstanding individual players.
Coach Neville 'Bertis' Bell says that with the way they train and the way he coaches, the emphasis is always on team. However, they have had to give special attention to the team philosophy and performing as one this season because of the absence of a marquee player.
"It might be a bit unfair to say we don't have [outstanding] individual players, but 12 people have scored, and our two centre forwards between them have 26 goals," Bell said. "But usually, we have a Kemal Malcolm, an Alex Marshall or a Marvin Morgan, somebody like that, and everybody would look to that person.
"But this is a team, and we have been stressing that, and that is the way I coach. This is a team from the bench to the coaching staff to those that help us with equipment. This is a team, and that is what I am most impressed with about with this set of guys," he said.
Bell's St George's College has been one of, if not, the most attractive schoolboy football teams over the last decade, and he also believes that their style is the most effective, with or without a talismanic figure.
"Every game, before we go, I say, 'Enjoy yourselves, move the ball,' and that's the way we play. I think this is not only the most attractive way to play, but I think it is also the most effective. It is very difficult to defend against a team moving the ball and moving it with some pace.
"Sometimes it's difficult to do that on some of the surfaces, but it is easy to do it at Sabina Park, and I thought we did it well today (Friday, when they beat Garvey Maceo 2-0 in the ISSA Champions Cup)," he added.
UNDER THE RADAR
St George's have not received much attention this season, but they are still unbeaten and are in the run for all available trophies. With the team at his disposal, Bell does not expect to finish the season trophyless.
"Someone said that we have been running under the radar, and I like that, so lets keep under the radar and see what happens" he said.
"But we had an expectation at the start of the season. When we made the Manning Cup semi-final, everyone was really happy. I said to them, 'We haven't won anything yet.'
"So we want to win something. We are still in line to win three titles, and if it is God's will, we want to win them all. We are up against some real quality teams in schoolboy football. The Manning Cup and Champions Cup are not easy to win; you have to have almost everything right. But this is a pretty decent team, and together, everyone achieves more," he concluded.