DACOSTA CUP TEAMS NEED TO STEP UP

Even if St. Elizabeth Technical High School should avenge the hiding their received from Jamaica College during last season’s Olivier Shield final and advance to the finals of the inaugural LIME Super Cup, there will be need for much introspection for those who manage and coach the teams representing the DaCosta Cup this year.

STETHs is the only school from the D’Cup that is still alive in the LIME Super Cup and if current trends have anything to say, Saturday could be their last day in the competition as JC and the other Manning Cup teams have been completely dominant.

On the opening day of matches two weeks ago, DaCosta Cup teams lost six of eight matches and last week the other remaining team Garvey Maceo ended their match with Holy Trinity with eight players as they slid to a 4-0 defeat.

It was like that from day-one with one set of schools, for the most part, playing something closer to what we expect from a game of football than the others. The Manning Cup teams looked better passing, like they know what the wanted to do with the ball and where they wanted to go with it and when the dust had settled after the opening weekend of matches, the gulf between the teams was stark. With STETHS being the probable exception, the rural-based teams proved to be not as fit, not as strong, not as tactically aware as their counterparts from the Manning Cup. That, for me, was a major disappointment. I grew up in rural Jamaica and was hoping that the D’Cup teams would have put up a better showing but whatever the reasons were, the only thing that became clear was that the D’Cup teams were not ready.

Maybe it has something to do with the surfaces they play on, the support or lack thereof provided by their respective schools, nutrition, or a combination of all of those factors plus others. The evidence will have to be closely scrutinized to make a final determination but if the LIME Cup is to be go on to be a success, something has to change. It could be a consequence of squad depth, not every school can afford a deep squad of players but something is not right. There is an obvious imbalance, especially when you consider what teams are in the final four.

Jamaica College, Wolmers, and STETHS are among the few schools that have been dominant in schoolboy football over the past few years. When you add St. George’s to that list, you pretty much have a who’s who in today’s schoolboy football hierarchy. Wolmer’s knocked out St. George’s in the quarter-finals last weekend.

Maybe these schools are the blueprint for other schools to emulate if they are to find success in schoolboy football at the highest level. Perhaps, other schools need to start studying more carefully the respective formulas of success and come up with one of their own.

The LIME SuperCup needs to be competitive if it is to mean something, and so far only a handful of matches have been. Going forward, the schools that have faltered need to up their games if we are to really have some super matches that will give the Super Cup pride of place in schoolboy football.

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5 Responses to “DACOSTA CUP TEAMS NEED TO STEP UP”

  1. odeon says:

    I agree that the DaCosta schools are lagging. One should do a full assessment of probable causes. The conversion of All Age and Secondary schools to High schools have seen an increase in the DaCosta teams and greater distribution of talent. Manning cup have it’s ore schools/teams, greater number of All Boys schools and the talent is significantly centalized. Naturally they are expected to do better.

    There is major challenge of knowledgeable coaches and urbanization. One should not that the JC coach is a DaCosta cup passed player who migrated.

    This dominance is expected and will continue. On aanother note JC’s strongest DaCosta Cup opponent was Cornwall College not STETHS

  2. ESTEBAN AGOSTO REID says:

    Ditto !

  3. EUAN ELLIS says:

    This is a qoute from an article on the gleaner website adressing the issue of aggresively recruiting particulary from country schools with incentives.

    “Striker Akeem Schackleford (formerly of Grange Hill High), Chevar Minize (Frome) and Nicholas Dodd (Meadowbrook) are some of the players that JC has brought in ahead of the current schoolboy football season.
    The Old Hope Road-based institution, which won the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/LIME knockout competition on Saturday at Sabina Park, has been one of the most successful schools in schoolboy football over the past seven years.
    They have won Manning Cup and Olivier Shield titles in 2007, 2010 and 2013 and also won back-to-back Walker Cup knockout titles in 2009 and 2010.”
    Figure this out

  4. Zulu says:

    Bless up Ditto,
    I must say I’m so elated to read a sentence from U King as I’m from Savannah Hayes Clarendon that little street before Vere Tech so u know wey mi a come from
    There will never be a Defender like You Ditto, and speaking bout Docosta Cup what Happen to u old team Wi gone to d Dawgs Parde,

    More health n strength

    Vere Tech was d best.

  5. The Establishment says:

    Mr. Levy,there is at least one inaccuracy or rather a misstatement in your article. How can you say that StGC added to the mix of dominant schools…etc.? Check your facts. StGC is one of the dominant schools. You don’t have to add them to the mix, because they are already there.

    Wolmer’s is a distant third and that is only because they have won the Walker Cup twice, but not the Manning Cup, in the last ten years.

    StGC and JC have been the DOMINANT schools over the past ten years. Since 2005 we have both won the Manning Cup four times each. JC won the Walker Cup twice and StGC once, Wolmer’s twice (no Manning Cup), Olivier Shield JC and StGC twice each. C’mon Mr. Levy, check your facts and give credit where it is due.

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5 comments so far
levyl Posted by: levyl October 31, 2014 at 11:46 am