Coaches cautiously optimistic at DaCosta start
Published:Friday | November 12, 2021 | 12:09 AMKavarly Arnold/Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
Schools participating in the ISSA DaCosta Cup are excited about getting back on the field, with the 2021 schoolboy football season set to return today after a year’s absence.
The 2020 season was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Coach of defending champions Clarendon College, Lenworth Hyde, said, while they are hell-bent on giving their best, he has accepted that there is no guarantee of them retaining their title.
Clarendon start their campaign against Edwin Allen High School in the lone rural area game at Jamaica College’s Ashenheim Stadium in Kingston at noon.
“The players are very excited,” Hyde said. “They want to play some football after being out for almost two years. They are looking forward to having fun in the season and, although we didn’t have the best preparation, we will go out there and do our best.
“You know our thing is different because we have players from both Kingston and the rural area. It was difficult to get everybody together, but we tried our best to get a team and get them going. I don’t know how far it will take us, but we have put in some work. We have quality players. So, yes, we are hell-bent on defending our title, but it’s not a guarantee based on how the preparation went.”
Dean Weatherly, coach of 12-time champions Cornwall College, is hoping his young and inexperienced team can grow from strength to strength as the short season goes on.
“Our preparation has been going relatively well,” he said. “It could have been better, based on the time period. It is not the usual that we are used to, so we will have to make a lot of adjustments as we go along.
“We have a very young team, only one person who has ever played DaCosta cup before. We have a two- to three-year team based on the age group. So we just have to see what happens.”
St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) head coach Omar Wedderburn says they are excited ahead of the season.
TROPHY DROUGHT
STETHS are facing a trophy drought after last winning the DaCosta and Ben Francis cups in 2015, ending a seven-year trophy streak that included six straight Ben Francis and three DaCosta Cup titles.
“We are all excited to go back out there,” Wedderburn said. “The only thing that will be missing is our fan base. Each year that we enter, our main objective is to win. Sometimes we achieve it, but sometimes we don’t, and this year is no different.”
Rusea’s High School head coach Dwayne Ambusley said, while they are optimistic ahead of the season, they also have to be realistic in hopes of a title challenge, as preparation has been below par.
The Lucea-based school last won the DaCosta Cup in 2017, but has since crashed out of the competition at the seeded-second round in the two seasons that followed.
“Preparations haven’t been great,” Ambusley said. “We don’t know what the other schools have to offer. However, my team has a few players that are capable of mounting a title challenge, if one wants to say that.
“With Rusea’s, the brand and the excitement will always be there, but sometimes a person cannot fool themselves – we have to be realistic. The preparation was not the best, so fitness is definitely an issue but I am optimistic.”