DaCosta Cup teams raring for restart
Published:Sunday | January 2, 2022 | 12:07 AMKavarly Arnold - Sunday Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
The ISSA daCosta Cup semi-finalists are all raring to go after taking an unusual break for the Christmas holidays.
In general, the schoolboy football season is done and dusted by the end of December, but given the competition’s late start and the application of central venues, the season has spilled into the new year.
The season is set to resume with the ISSA Champions Cup on Wednesday but paused for two weeks to facilitate the students’ Christmas holiday break.
Other competitions set to resume in January are the daCosta and Manning cups, which are the semi-final stage, as well as the Ben Francis and Walker knockout cups.
Coach of the Manning’s School, Everton Tomlinson, said the break was necessary for his team to refocus for the second instalment of the season after achieving their primary objective in the first phase.
“The break was necessary. We had set out objectives before the start of the season to get to the semi-final and we have achieved that. We gave them a week’s break and resumed this week,” Tomlinson had said at the end of December.
“The players required, and for the most part showed they were disciplined in doing their assignments while on break. I am satisfied with where they are now. We are just fine-tuning a few things as we look forward to completing the season successfully,” Tomlinson said.
Perfect record
Everton Burke, team manager of Dinthill High, the only school still with a perfect record in the daCosta Cup, said: “We gave them four days off but with programmes so they don’t lose fitness when they come back. We were working on some things prior to the break and as we resume we have picked up on it again, working on areas to improve.”
“We have been camping from August so I gave them a few days off from the 23rd and they returned on Tuesday [December 28]. I also gave them some assignments in terms of physical work over the break. We are doing some tactical work now in preparation for the game next week, which will be a tough one against [St Andrew Technical High School].
But things aren’t as smooth for defending champions Clarendon College, according to coach Lenworth ‘Lenny’ Hyde.
“I can’t say everything went as planned because players overstayed and so on. I don’t think it should affect things going forward, at least I’m hoping it doesn’t. However, we are working with them again and looking forward to the restart,” Hyde said.