Former champions Jamaica College (JC) will launch their campaign in a bid to become the first double winner of the ISSA/FLOW Super Cup knockout competition when they square off against Clarendon College in one of four intriguing contests across two venues today.

The third edition of the much-anticipated competition got under way yesterday with high levels of excitement and entertainment and today is expected to be no different at the Catherine Hall Sports Complex in St James and Sabina Park in Kingston.

With the $1-million winning prize in addition to the newly unveiled trophy at stake in the lucrative four-week knockout competition dubbed the “Champions League of Schoolboy Football”, top teams from the Manning and daCosta Cup competitions will be aiming to make all against the unseeded teams of both competitions.

JC, who were denied the double by St George’s College in a fairly one-sided final last year, will be aiming to open positively against their unseeded opponents at Sabina Park curtain-raiser at 5:00 pm.

The Miguel Coley-coached JC have so far brushed everything aside this season having already secured a spot in the Walker Cup final, and they will be brimming with confidence to cut their Chapelton-based opponents’ Super Cup campaign short.

Though relatively quiet as it relates to their attacking ability, scoring just 20 goals in all competitions this season, the Old Hope Road-based team is gradually coming into their own and should cause some trouble.

However, Clarendon College, like JC, are making a third appearance in the competition and will by no means be short on confidence getting by their more fancied opponents.

Though their first round exit of 2014 at the same venue will be on their minds, the former daCosta Cup champions are rated as one of the form teams in the rural area this season and are expected to fight to the very end.

Richard Palmer, manager of Clarendon College, has scuffed at the whispers of Jamaica College being a tough opponent.

“Our approach is just to go out there and play good football; the coaches will have to determine that, but I am just expecting the team to go out there and give it their best shot. Jamaica College is just another team like us, they have 11 players and we have 11, so I don’t see the big difference in whichever team we play,” Palmer told the

Jamaica Observer in a recent interview at the tournament’s launch at the National Indoor Sports Centre recently.

The Sabina Park feature contest will see the high-riding Manning Cup top seed Kingston College opposing the unseeded Vere Technical at 7:00 pm. The North Street-based team has been in top form this season, which resulted in them making the Walker Cup final, their first final in well over two years.

Vere Technical are riding high and have only lost once all season. The Clarendon-based team topped their zone in the first round of the daCosta Cup competition, and on their current form, should prove a formidable opponent.

With marksman Rashawn Mackinson and others in good form, KC are favoured to take top honours, but coach Ludlow Bernard believes his opponents deserve some amount of respect.

“I know when we heard Glenmuir the players were very confident because we played them last year and we lost and I know they were looking forward to that. But Vere are whom we are going up against and it should be a good match up, because Vere have been coming forward quite recently in the football,” said Bernard.

Meanwhile, daCosta Cup champions and 2014 Super Cup semi-finalist St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) will oppose 2014 finalists Holy Trinity in what should be a closely contested curtain-raiser at Catherine Hall at 5:00 pm.

Omar Wedderburn, coach of STETHS, said his team will relish the challenge.

“Well as always each team we play against is a quality team and that is how we look on our opponents, we never look down or look up too much on anyone of them. So you know this Holy Trinity team will want this first game to be a mark or a stepping stone for them just like us, so we are looking forward to this game coming Saturday (today),” he declared.

Unseeded Manning Cup debutants Haile Selassie and the seeded rural area Rusea’s High will do battle in the Catherine Hall feature encounter at 7:00 pm.

Telecommunications provider FLOW has reminded patrons that no tickets will be sold at the venues. Ticket outlets in high traffic destinations in Kingston, St Catherine and Montego Bay, plus ticket hubs in walking distance from each venue will provide greater access to tickets.

Today’s games

5:00 pm – Jamaica College vs Clarendon College @ Sabina Park

7:00 pm – Kingston College vs Vere Technical @ Sabina Park

5:00 pm – Holy Trinity vs St Elizabeth Technical @ Catherine Hall

7:00 pm – Haile Selassie vs Rusea’s High @ Catherine Hall