Coaches ecstatic about victory
WINNING coaches Carla Hewitt and Rahsaan Smith of St Hugh’s High and Wolmer’s Boys High, respectively, were elated after their teams captured the 2014 ISSA/Jamaica Hockey Federation high schoolgirls’ and boys’ Under-19 Championships at the Mona Hockey Field on Wednesday.
Hewitt, who has been the coach for a number of years, said that it is about time now that her team won a major championship.
“It is a very wonderful feeling knowing we have defeated the defending champions. I have carried this team from Under-14, Under-16 and now the Under-19, so you could tell the win was coming.
“We came into the game very confident; on our journey to the game I told them we have this game in the bag and that they should be patient and apply themselves, and they went out there and delivered.
St Hugh’s defeated St Andrew High 1-0 on a Shanique Williams penalty, after both teams ended 0-0 in regulation time.
“We are a scoring team, we average like five goals per game, so I expected them to score plenty of goals, but that wasn’t the case, but we are very grateful for the win,” Hewitt told the Jamaica Observer.
Hewitt also said that she hopes to have all the players back next year to defend their title.
“All the girls are in fifth form and so I hope that they all make it to sixth form so they can defend their title. These girls are capable of anything… they are truly champions and I want them all back next year,” she said.
Meanwhile, Smith was very happy with Wolmer’s victory.
“Wow, very happy, Overwhelmed with the victory. We played the better game here and I think that the better team won,” he said.
He continued: “I think from the quarter-finals my team has been playing with a lot of intensity, technical, and tactics, so this victory today was coming. I have been working with Wolmer’s now for five years.
Wolmer’s triumphed 2-0 over Mona High, courtesy of goals from Justin Frith in the 11th minute, and Luke Frazer in the 35th minute.
“We lost to Jamaica College in the final last year, so we worked hard on simply passing the ball, stopping the ball, moving into spaces and with all the training we expected to win. We have beaten JC in a tournament earlier, so we knew we would come out victorious.”
