Mon | Sep 23, 2024

Football coach calls on past students to support Norman Manley

Published:Monday | September 23, 2024 | 12:10 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
Tae-Sean Oniel (left) of St George’s College dances over the ball as he tries to beat Norman Manley High’s Nickoy Davidson (right) during a Manning Cup match at St George’s last Tuesday. St George’s won 7-0. Looking on is Matthew Spence of St Geo
Ian Allen/Photographer
Tae-Sean Oniel (left) of St George’s College dances over the ball as he tries to beat Norman Manley High’s Nickoy Davidson (right) during a Manning Cup match at St George’s last Tuesday. St George’s won 7-0. Looking on is Matthew Spence of St George’s.

Norman Manley High’s Manning Cup coach Jahmoy Green said with greater assistance from past students they can once again be the force they once were in schoolboy football.

Green, who represented the Maxfield Avenue-based school from 2013-15, said the three-time Manning Cup winners and two-time Olivier Shield champions are not getting the type of support they got in former years. According to the former player if they got the support it would be a great motivation for the players.

Green said local football has grown to new levels and it is now difficult for one coach to perform all tasks and for the school to incur all expenses.

As a result he said that in order to be competitive again the school needs a body of past students to support the programme and inspire the players.

“We need a full backroom staff to compete with the best teams. We need the old students to come in and play their part. It just can’t be the school alone. We need the past students to be there for the youths,” he said.

Recently a former player, Damion Powell, who also represented Waterhouse FC, and other past students donated $350,000 to assist the school’s sports programme.

Although Green welcomes such contributions, he pointed out that it is not only financial support that they require. He called on the past students to also play mentorship roles and give motivational talks to encourage the youngsters.

“They need to come in and show their faces to the youth and try to motivate them. You know that these young players don’t get that much motivation, like when I was playing,” he said.

In their first game of the 2024 Manning Cup season, Green’s team fell 7-0 to St George’s College and he lamented how much things have changed since he last played.

“It’s the first I can remember us being beaten 7-0, usually we would be the ones defeating teams by those scores. But it’s really a young team, so we are looking forward to next year. We will keep on doing the work and hope that we can keep this crop of boys for 2025,” he stated.

He added that the main objective for this season is to help the young players understand what the coaches want from them, and help them develop as a unit.

“We have mostly young players coming from the under-14s, stepping up to the Manning Cup. So it’s a young team that we have and we are just trying to keep them together to prepare for the next campaign. That is our aim.

“We never got to play our first game against St George’s but they will understand and get better.

“This year it’s just to let them understand their roles and functions and how to move the ball quicker,” Green said.

Norman Manley will face Papine High in one of eight Manning Cup games today.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com

Today’s games

Ardenne vs Dunoon

Eltham vs Hydel

Haile Selassie vs STATHS

Calabar vs Kingston Tech.

Vauxhall vs Camperdown

Bridgeport vs Jamaica College

Pembroke Hall vs Excelsior

Papine vs Norman Manley

All games kick off at 3:30 p.m.