This is the final of a three-part series that seeks to find some common agreement as to the best schoolboy football team in Jamaica. Andrew Price, who was a standout schoolboy player himself, examines the intricacies of the topic — long a vibrant talking point across Jamaica’s football landscape. But as he has found, and so will our readers, many conversations — as entrenched in this series — end without a qualified and agreed conclusion, which has proved elusive as drifting sand at high tide.

The era of the 1980s started with the dominant Camperdown team of 1982, with the likes of Peter ‘Jair’ Cargill, Nyron Prawl, Richard ‘Duck’ Green, Mark Salmon, Andrew ‘Bowa’ Hines, Dale Palmer and a young Barrington ‘Cobra’ Gaynor.

Cargill was the engineer in the midfield, while Hines and Palmer were an excellent pairing at the heart of the defence protecting the efficient goal tender Prawl. With top marksman Mark Salmon, supported by the speedy winger Prince Topey, this Camperdown team — under the stewardship of Jackie Walters — was an awesome outfit.

It would have been good to have seen the match-up between that Camperdown outfit and the unbeaten St George’s College side that was unfortunately disqualified for using an over-aged player that same year.

The St George’s College’s triple championship teams of 1983 and 1984, coached by the late Dennis Ziadie, played attractive football during the period.

Led by one of the hardest schoolboy kickers of the ball, Richard Strachan, the talented bunch brought some attractiveness to the game. In Strachan, the wily Paul Littlejohn, the magician Gary Bolton, the Ziadie brothers (Chris and Nick), Garfield Pearcy, Dwain Brooks and the hard-tackling yours truly. The ‘Light Blues’ played an exciting brand of football throughout the ’83 season.

They lost one game that season and that was to Cornwall College (2-0) at the National Stadium in the second leg of the Olivier Shield. St George’s, however, got their revenge against Cornwall in the Nutriment Shield at Jarrett Park, winning 3-0.

The following year, the ‘Light Blues’ repeated as triple champions — adding to their Corporate Area titles the Olivier Shield, which they won 2-0 on aggregate against Rusea’s. Their only blemish that season was losing the Nutriment Shield to Cornwall 1-2.

In addition to some aforementioned players, fringe players from the previous year Christopher ‘Chippa’ Morgan, David Sinclair, Mark Murray, Brian ‘Skitto’ Hamilton and Michael Forbes rose to the occasion for the ‘Light Blues’ once again.

For a team to lose only three games in two seasons, while winning six titles, is an incredible feat.

Not to be outdone, the 1985 Rusea’s team coached by Emerson ‘Diggy’ Henry achieved the once thought impossible feat by winning four titles in one season — the daCosta Cup, Ben Francis Trophy, Olivier Shield and the now defunct Nutriment Shield.

That all-conquering team comprised captain Linton ‘Conch’ Stewart, Donald Hewitt, Caple Donaldson, Leroy Foster and Anthony Dennis, among others. As Henry alluded to in my conversations with him, the team was a cohesive unit, having played for three years together and their maturity showed throughout the season. The closest they came to losing a game that season was in the Olivier Shield second leg.

The ‘Russians’, as they were affectionately called, went to the half-time trailing 0-2. But in an amazing second-half display, orchestrated second-half revival to tie the game 2-2 and share the title with Kingston College.

Several of the above-mentioned players went on to represent the country at some stage of their careers. In the case of Stewart, he played left-back for Jamaica as a schoolboy.

The 1990s saw several great schoolboy teams emerging. Among them are St George’s College, Rusea’s, Dunoon and Clarendon College, but none more dominant than the 1995 Charlie Smith triple cup winners.

This team was coached by Jerome Waite and those players delivered attractive and enterprising football. They were led by the so-called ‘Gang of Five’ — captain Eugene Barnes, Kevin ‘Pele’ Wilson, Everton Bunsie, Cornel Chin-Sue and Kwame Richardson. They defeated all-comers that they faced that year.

In the Manning Cup final, Charlie Smith defeated a Wolmer’s team which included former Reggae Boy Ricardo ‘Bibi’ Gardner. They then went on to beat Cornwall College in the Olivier Shield.

Two of these players — Wilson and Chin-Sue — were part of the 1998 World Cup campaign to France. The vaunted ‘Gang of Five’ went on to play for Arnett Gardens, winning back-to-back Premier League titles. Interestingly, these very players were coached at Arnett Gardens by Waite.

Today, Waite is the coach of both Charlie Smith and Arnett Gardens.

At the turn of the 21st century there were several schools that won three titles in one season. They are Cornwall College in 2001; Glenmuir in 2004; Jamaica College in 2010 and St George’s College in 2011.

Though these teams were dominant, they did not have players that could walk straight into a national senior team programme. The crowds at these recent games have significantly diminished and attendance is at an all-time low at school games. However, ISSA must be given credit, along with sponsors, to give supporters the opportunity to watch games live on television. It is hoped that with improved talent on show more spectators will start returning to the games.

In my final analysis, below are my base criteria in my attempt to select the best schoolboy football teams.

1) The type of competition played against within a given year

2) The number of titles that the team won within a season

3) The number of All-Manning, All-daCosta, All-School selections

4) The number of players who represented the country at senior level while at school

5) The number of players who transitioned to the national programme

6) Number of goals scored as opposed to those conceded

7) Whether the team went unbeaten or not

Now having looked carefully at various criteria, speaking to several former players, coaches and supporters, and of course my personal observation, the best schoolboy teams are the 1964 and ’65 Kingston College teams and the 1977 Clarendon College team.

I have to make it perfectly clear that I have a bias for the Clarendon College team, which made me aware of the beautiful game of football locally. Lenworth ‘Teacher’ Hyde was my schoolboy idol and that Olivier Shield game against Calabar still gives me goose bumps whenever I remember it. But despite my bias, I must be objective in my decision.

For a team to beat all the senior teams of the day in Division One football locally, including the much-talked-about Cavalier SC (‘Duncan Destroyers’), credit must be given to the Kingston College teams of ’64 and ’65. This team went unbeaten for two consecutive seasons and won six titles as triple champions. Ten players of that ’64 team made the All-Schools team and played against a Brazilian Under-21 outfit, drawing 1-1. Eight of these players went on to represent Jamaica as schoolboys, while several of them went on to become regular national players.

Several of them got football scholarships to study in the United States and are all professionals in their chosen fields to this day. To score 44 goals and only concede two goals is something almost unimaginable in modern-day football.

But this KC team did it all.

The type of dominance exhibited by this mercurial team has not been replicated since and it will continue to be the team all others are to be judged by.

Andrew Price is a former schoolboy football player, coach of Red Stripe Premier League outfit Boys’ Town and general manager of the Premier League Clubs Association.