Thu | Apr 25, 2024

Extreme vigilance

ISSA urges caution for Digicel-sponsored Manning, daCosta Cup schoolboy football

Published:Thursday | August 25, 2022 | 12:08 AMRobert Bailey/Gleaner Writer
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Representatives of last season’s champions schools model their team kit and trophies while parading at yesterday’s launch of the ISSA schoolboy football season at the National Stadium yesterday. They are (from left) Romeo Daniels of Clarendon College,
Nicholas Nunes/Photographer
Representatives of last season’s champions schools model their team kit and trophies while parading at yesterday’s launch of the ISSA schoolboy football season at the National Stadium yesterday. They are (from left) Romeo Daniels of Clarendon College, Rolando Redman of St Catherine High, Mashordo Gibbs of Kingston College (KC), Delano Thompson of Marcus Garvey Technical, Alwayne Bryan of Edwin Allen High, and Kemoy Waugh of KC.
Keith Wellington (centre), President of the Inter-Secondary Schools’ Sports Association (ISSA), point to the Digicel sponsorship amount of $84 million while he stands with Elon Parkinson (left), Public Relations and Communications Manager, Digicel, and L
Nicholas Nunes/Photographer
Keith Wellington (centre), President of the Inter-Secondary Schools’ Sports Association (ISSA), point to the Digicel sponsorship amount of $84 million while he stands with Elon Parkinson (left), Public Relations and Communications Manager, Digicel, and Linvern Wright, Chairman of the daCosta Cup competition, at the launch of the schoolboy football season at the National Stadium, St Andrew, yesterday.
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WITH THE schoolboy football competitions scheduled to begin in just under three weeks, Keith Wellington, president of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), said the organisation would remain very vigilant in maintaining COVID-19 protocols despite the decrease in cases across Jamaica.

The country’s COVID-19 positivity rate now stands at 23.9 per cent, compared to 43.9 per cent in August last year.

Wellington told The Gleaner that because the monkeypox disease is also in the island, they will be putting measures in place to ensure that they educate their student-athletes about maintaining these protocols to prevent its contraction. The country has so far recorded three confirmed cases of the monkeypox disease.

“It is not just COVID, but you now have monkeypox, and so we want to ensure that our students are protected because at the end of the day, we don’t want anything to happen that will jeopardise the general future of our students, but also their academics,” said Wellington.

“I think that they have suffered over the last two and half years, and we don’t want to contribute anything at all to them being affected in terms of their school life anymore,” he said.

SAFETY MEASURES

“You want to encourage them to understand that while we are feeling safe now, the things that were done to get us back to this point are still important in terms of keeping us there, and so we will continue to speak to our students in the school settings, as well as in the competition, about what is required, in terms of the discipline of ensuring the safety measures,” Wellington said.

Digicel has renewed its three-year sponsorship to the tune of $84 million, and the season is scheduled to kick off on September 10, with action in the Manning and daCosta Cup competitions. Thirty-seven teams are set to participate in the Manning Cup while 81 schools have entered the daCosta Cup.

Wellington underscored that his organisation is expecting a pulsating season because all the schools are eager and raring to go.

“I am excited and anxiously awaiting the start of the season,” he said. “We did so well last year that everybody is anxiously awaiting the restart this year with us having back almost the normal number of schools participating. I think we are in for an interesting season.”

Elon Parkinson, public relations and communication manager of Digicel, said his company is looking forward to a wonderful season.

“We are extremely excited about the upcoming season primarily because it is the most telling signal of the nation returning to normal. And with schoolboy football leading the way, we feel that it is going to bring a new kind of energy to sports in general as we reopen and rebuild,” said Parkinson.

“It also generates a new level of competition among the schools. That’s primarily because the disruption would have made them a lot hungrier for the titles that are out there for them to conquer,” he said.

robert.bailey@gleanerjm.com

Digicel has renewed its three-year sponsorship to the tune of $84 million and the season is scheduled to kick off on September 10, with action in the Manning and daCosta Cup