JAMAICA College’s (JC’s) Manning Cup coach Alfred Henry was suspended for a year by the Inter-Secondary Schools Association (ISSA) following charges of misconduct. Henry, a trained teacher who led the Old Hope Road school to the prestigious Urban Area title in 2007, will be banned from November 30, 2009 to November 29, 2010, after being found guilty of verbally abusing ISSA and match officials.

Stephanie Baker, ISSA’s competition assistant, told the Observer that a letter informing the school about the decision was sent to them.

“He (Henry) has been suspended from all football games from November 30, 2009 to November 29, 2010,” Baker confirmed.

“He was found guilty of misconduct towards the referees and administrators after the Manning Cup game involving JC and Wolmer’s on November 14 held at Winchester Park,” Baker added.

Efforts by the Observer to reach Henry for a comment proved futile yesterday as his mobile phone was turned off up to press time last evening.

Henry found himself in trouble after making disparaging remarks against the match officials and administrators after his team lost 2-3 to Wolmer’s, effectively ending their Manning Cup campaign.

Henry was quoted after the game as saying that the administrators (ISSA) cannot administrate and that the referees cannot referee.

His frustration apparently went deeper after his team had to play five games in a 13-day span. Henry subsequently described the organisers and referees as “incompetent” and further labelled the referees as “nincompoops”.

ISSA’s competition’s director George Forbes was later quoted as saying that for every match that he has been involved in, Henry has to blame somebody.

“So people can talk and say what they want to say, but there is a code of ethics that is guided by ISSA,” Forbes said.

“There are certain schools who think they should have a monopoly as to where the matches are played, but we are satisfied with the venues chosen given the economic situations.

“There is also talk about the frequency of the matches. We have abided by the FIFA rule, which says 48 hours between matches is sufficient. We would have wanted 72 hours, but there are certain cases where we had to play the matches within 48 hours,” he explained.

    Henry, who returned to Jamaica College in 2005 after a 15-year absence, was recruited by Ian Forbes and John Mair to revitalise the school’s football programme.

Two years later, in 2007, Henry did just that by lifting the title and ending a 33-year drought for the Dark Blues. He returned to the final in 2008 but lost to St George’s College.

Henry also led JC to this year’s Walker Cup Knock-out title after beating St George’s College on penalties.

Henry, a teacher at heart, honed his skills at The Mico University College where he studied Social Studies, with an emphasis on history and geography. He taught at his alma mater for two years before joining the JC faculty in 1984.

He became a trained journalist after getting his Bachelor’s degree at Bloomfield College and his Masters degree at Seton Hall University in Communications.