THOUGH in existence for only 10 years, Innswood High captured their first Grace Shield Premier League cricket title at the expense of five-time former champions Eltham High. Principal Anthony Eubanks, who is currently on vacation leave, says being the 2010 Urban Area champions is a crucial step towards the school’s overall development.

Speaking after their convincing 232-run victory at Melbourne Oval on Friday, Eubanks told the Sunday Observer that discipline and hard work were the key ingredients to success.

“This victory is a very important milestone in the development of the school, and moreso that it’s in the area of cricket, which is a highly disciplined sport,” said Eubanks.

“The school is improving academically and in the area of discipline and the victory… is as a result of the discipline and hard work displayed by the players over the years,” he said.

Added Eubanks: “This team has been improving steadily; we won the cricket ‘A’ League title three years ago. We were in the two finals (Grace Shield and Knockout) last year and now we are the champions, and this shows the improvement,” he said.

Nestled on the cool plains of St Catherine, Innswood is a relative newcomer in the local education system and acting principal Redva Ferril believes winning the title will put the school on the proverbial map.

“This is a fairly new school and there are many persons who don’t know much about the school, so this victory will put us in the limelight.

“Things like this will send the school to many places. We really feel overjoyed and this trophy will be retained once there is a ISSA/Grace Shield competition,” she said.

While sharing his elation, coach Kirk Gordon said he, too,was already plotting the way forward to ensure more dominance for Innswood at this level.

“Words are inadequate to describe how I feel. The school body rallied behind the team and a lot of hard work was put in from September last year.

“We’re going to lose about seven players from this season, but the replacements are there. We want to repeat this next year, so the hard work continues,” he said.

“We’ll also be preparing for the Knock-out version of this competition and also the all-island final next week,” he added.

The general consensus at Innswood is that instilling good values and positive attitudes are essential, and Eubanks conceded that their support for sport does not fall far behind.