DEFENDING champions The Queen’s School will go up against Eltham High as the 2013 Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Urban High School Junior and Senior Leagues get under way today at several venues.

The Queen’s will host Eltham at their school courts in a Zone D fixture, with the juniors scheduled to begin at 2:30 pm and the seniors starting at approximately 3:30 pm. Action in the Junior League will be played for 40 minutes, while the seniors will have a duration of 48 minutes.

The Queen’s were denied additional titles last season after losing in the All-Island Championship finals, beaten by St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS), and Holmwood Technical High in both the junior and senior league finals, respectively.

Marvette Anderson, coach of The Queen’s will be hoping to begin their defence of both league titles on a winning note.

The schools most likely to contend for this year’s titles are former champions St Hugh’s, St Andrew and St Catherine, all of whom reached the semi-finals of the senior league rally held last Friday.

The Queen’s, despite not reaching the semi-finals, will still be the school to beat, as some of their junior players have stepped up to the top league and are quite capable for doing well. Others who should be in the running are Holy Childhood and Camperdown High.

In the junior section, schools fancied to qualify for the second rebound should be defending champions The Queen’s, Camperdown, Norman Manley High and St Jago High.

The other matches scheduled from Zone D are Jose Marti High vs Norman Manley; Innswood High vs Trench Town High; Jonathan Grant High vs Ascot High.

ZONE B – Immaculate Conception High vs Haile Selassie High; Penwood High vs Mona High; Alpha Academy vs Clan Carthy High.

ZONE E – St Jago High vs Holy Trinity High; Campion College vs Pembroke Hall High; Camperdown High vs Merl Grove High.

Home teams are named first.

Forty-six schools are participating in the urban area league divided into six zones with the winners and runners-up advancing to the second round to be divided into two groups. Matches will be played on a round-robin format, with the winners and runners-up qualifying for the semi-finals in both the juniors and seniors.