Western Bureau:

CORINALDI AVENUE Primary School will be the rural representative in the all-island final of the Youth Football League’s Junior Cup after claiming the title for the rural leg of the tournament in Montego Bay yesterday.

The tournament, staged by Free Your Image (FYI) Consultancy Group, in partnership with the Institute of Sports (Insport), and the Jamaica Independent Schools Association (JISA), featured 12 teams at the Cornwall College playing field.

Corinaldi bounced back from losing their first game of the tournament to defeating Bethel Primary 1-0 in the final, before getting by DMP Academy 3-0 in the quarterfinal and Steer Town Primary 4-1 in the semifinals on their route to the rural title. Corinaldi would go on to defeat Bethel Primary School 1-0 in the final.

Paula Pinnock, FYI’s managing director, said her organisation was excited about the quality and passion displayed by the players of schools from St James, St Ann St Mary and Hanover.

She is anticipating a mouth-watering all-island final on October 29, where the urban and rural champions will play for the national title and both runners-up will play off for third place.

“We are excited for the kids and the passion they show. We are pleased with the calibre of the teams. We have Corinaldi that won the tournament, which will make for an exciting final in Kingston. We have done what we set out to do in re-engaging the youths in football,” said Pinnock.

“I am excited and look forward to an extremely competitive final that shows the need for what we do. The finals for the Kingston leg is next week. We are grateful for the turnout and support from our partners,” she added.

Coach of Corinaldi, Ricardo Esmie, said winning the competition after a limited time to prepare is pleasing and his team now looks forward to winning the all-island title.

“Corinaldi is usually a slow starter, but once we get in the rhythm, we will deliver. This is a joyful feeling because it was short notice and had to get ready for the competition in one week. We just picked out the ‘tiny tots’ and it worked out,” Esmie said.

“I have had some disastrous experiences in Kingston over the years but the last time I went there a few months ago, I won a title. We will be going back this time with confidence so we are looking forward to another title,” he added.

Pinnock said she was aware that the rural schools were handicapped by the lack of activity, especially coming out of the pandemic and is looking forward to kicking off 2023 with a bang.

“One of the things that hampered us in the rural area is that the schools were not ready to take the field. As a result, we didn’t get as many as we did in Kingston where we were oversubscribed. But the interest here in rural Jamaica is just as high, so we are excited because we know what we have planned for 2023,” Pinnock said.

“Yes, this is our flagship Junior Cup tournament, but there are three levels to it and we are looking to start 2023 with our under eights,” she added.

Pinnock outlined that she was particularly pleased to see girls a part of almost all the teams in the tournament, which bodes well for their ‘Girls Can Play Too’ initiative coming next year.

“I am happy to see the girls out here. When I see a team like Corinaldi having a superstar young lady on their team, who is just in grade two and playing toe-to-toe with the boys. She had the entire venue cheering for her when she shifted two players (boys) leaving them on the ground.

“We are excited for the girls. We have a coaching clinic coming early next year which will unveil the ‘Girls Can Play Too’ initiative. It will get girls excited about football and parents’ thinking ... We have a Reggae Girlz team that has qualified for back-to-back World Cups which is a greater achievement than even our Reggae Boyz. They deserve the support and we deserve to have girls excited about football at the grassroots and the primary and prep school level,” she added.

The Youth Football League Junior Cup is sponsored by Puma, iPrint Digital Jamaica, Insurance Company of the West Indies, JISA, The Gleaner Company (Media) Ltd, Insport, Sports Development Foundation, Funland Jamaica, and FYI.