‘It has to be different’

FIVE-TIME JAMAICA Premier League (JPL) winners Harbour View Football Club will turn a new page this season, with the Ludlow Bernard era coming to a close and the Jason ‘Buju’ Henry term set to begin.

Bernard led Harbour View for the last five seasons, winning the title in 2022. However, things have gone downhill since then, with the team even failing to qualify for the top six last season.

Bernard had announced at the end of that season that he would be taking on different roles at the club, leaving the position vacant.

After a meticulous selection process, which included a number of other young Harbour View coaches, Henry was named to lead the team this season.

Henry, who is widely known in football circles as one of the country’s top physical trainers, worked with numerous national teams, seniors, juniors, males and females, in that capacity.

He admitted that he always intended to make the transition into coaching and believes that his time with the national teams and his experience as assistant and then coach of G.C. Foster from 2015 to 2017 and as Intercollegiate assistant to Davian Ferguson during that period has prepared him for this upcoming challenge.

“So it is not the first that I am being a coach, but it is the first that I am being appointed at the Premier League level.”

The struggles of Harbour View were quite evident last season after losing a number of key players to overseas contracts from their championship-winning team.

The team mainly suffered in front of goal, which was the main narrative from former coach Ludlow Bernard over the course of the last campaign.

Henry understands that there is no grace period and that he has to be competing for the title to stay in the job.

“Everyone knows the pedigree that Harbour View comes with and what the club expects from anybody who is at the helm.

“But in life, everybody has to go through a phase. The club was going through a little transition before COVID-19, and that was when Mr Bernard came in with myself and other members of the coaching staff and started to think post-COVID-19 as we wanted to ensure that after the COVID period, we would be on a path upward.

“We went on to win the league. Then we finished in the top four. However, since the remodelling of the league, last season would have been the worst of those years,” he said.

“So our short-term objective is that at the end of the preliminaries, we should be in the top six. And then we will take it from there.”

He revealed plans to strengthen their striking options and that he has already targeted a few goalscorers in the transfer market.

Harbour View start preseason preparations on July 22, and although this will be Henry’s first season, he says the playoffs is where the battle for the title truly begins and wants to prepare his team to play their best football at that stage of the season.

“At Harbour View, the coach has to be fully prepared for the magnitude of the club and what that brings. You have to be challenging for the league.

Still, Henry likes Harbour View’s structure and would not want to change anything at that level.

“I do not plan to reinvent the wheel. Harbour View have a structure. What I plan to do with my staff and club directors is to streamline and fix what we need to fix.

“I want to mentally create that competitive environment to get the best out of every single player,” he said

“I want to thank everyone who made this appointment a reality. We are just looking to try and develop something different. It has to be different.”

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com