HAYES, Clarendon — Coach Wayne Whyte is backing his Vere Technical team to challenge for major honours in this season’s ISSA/Flow daCosta Cup competition.

The former champions, who dominated schoolboy football in the 1960s and ’70s, winning some 15 titles in all competitions, have not mounted a serious title challenge since 1980.

But, having improved on last season’s inter-zone appearance with a quarter-final berth this term, Whyte believes Vere Tech are primed for a comeback.

“Based on what I’ve seen, I do believe we can challenge for a title this season,” said Whyte.

“Most of these players have been playing together for the past two to three years — they came up through the ranks, the Under-14s and the Under-16s — and each game we play I can see improvements, so I do believe it is possible,” added Whyte.

The south-eastern Clarendon side, who lost only once in the preliminary round, dominated their inter-zone group to advance to the quarter-final round with a perfect record, following victories over Paul Bogle High (2-1) Denbigh High (1-0) and Ewarton High (2-0).

Whyte said their only concern at the moment is their goal-scoring record. “We are creating a lot of chances, but we are still not scoring enough,” he said.

Vere will also contest the Flow Champions Cup for the first time, which Whyte thinks is a positive sign for their rebuilding programme.

“This is a historic tournament and we are one of the top schools in terms of winning titles, so it means a lot that we’ll be taking part this year. It means that we are moving in the right direction,” said Whyte, who named former Reggae Boyz captain Christopher Dawes as an integral part of the school’s rebuilding programme.