Thus far our fortune

Keeps an upward course,

And we are graced

With wreaths of victory.

— Shakespeare, 3 Henry

They say that it’s not if you win or lose, but how you play the game that really matters. It’s been said by US football coach Henry Russell and made famous by coach Vince Lombardi, that winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. So much has been said about sports and winning and how we should play. The joy of victory, the agony of defeat.

What I will say is that no sport on Earth invokes so much passion as football, or soccer, as many refer to it. It’s a game that brings out the best and the worst in people, with national holidays being given after a victory, suicides after a defeat, referees and even players being killed by crazed fans.

No other sport does that, and it’s a game of glorious uncertainty, a game that can bring great joy, but also a game that can be exceedingly cruel. So many times the ball will hit the crossbar or post and refuses to go into the goal, after the team has played brilliantly to get it there. Then the opposing team will get a lucky break and score a goal from a goalmouth melee, against the run of play as they always say, and go on to win the game. Cruel, really cruel.

But that’s why we love the game, that’s why we play the game, and that’s why we watch the game. It’s a fever that grips us all. That’s the kick-off this week, right after these responses to my hemming and hawing of ‘Dress Code’.

Hi Tony,

You are so right, there is a time and place for everything, and that applies to the way we dress as well. I remember when folks used to dress up for a trip, whether it be on a train, ship or plane. Women would wear their best dress, high heel shoes and pearls. Men dressed in their suits and ties. Nowadays I see tourists on the plane to Jamaica dressed in T-shirts and flip-flops, ready for the beach. Jamaicans returning home are more properly dressed, not to the nines, but appropriately for the times.

Cedric

Hey Tony,

Clothes maketh the man, they say, and the woman too. The way a person dresses is a reflection of their inner self, and the clothes haven’t got to be fancy or expensive, but at least neat and clean. It indicates that the person takes pride in their appearance and also respects those around them. Anyone who wears sexually alluring clothes to church or the workplace has respect for neither. A time and place for everything.

Colette

Football fever gripped the land for a few months as the schoolboy football season got underway. Everyone had their favourite team that they supported fervently, and everyone wanted to win. Naturally there were always the favourite, high-profile teams who were touted to sweep everything, and also the minnows who weren’t expected to go very far in the competition.

It’s now far more exciting, as there are so many competitions going on at the same time. There’s the Manning and daCosta cups, symbols of urban and rural football supremacy, the Walker Cup and Ben Francis Cup, which are urban and rural knockout competitions, and the exciting FLOW/ ISSA Super Cup that pits the four best urban schools against the four top rural schools. They call it the “Champions” League of schoolboy football, as it’s the only real test of all-island football supremacy.

Of course, there’s the Olivier Shield between the winners of the Manning Cup and the daCosta Cup, but that has now been eclipsed by the FLOW Super Cup, as it’s only a one-off game. Well, my blood runs purple and my passion runs deep. I attended every match that my alma mater KC played season. But being a football lover, I also watched other teams play, and in my opinion, shared by many sportscasters, KC and Clarendon College were the two best teams in the island.

The technical skills of the players were a cut above the rest, and it’s a pity that those two teams did not meet at any time as that would have been quite a football spectacle. I watch a lot of football, even highlights of our own Premier League, and make sure that I don’t miss CVM‘s Football GPS to catch up on the highlights of games around the world, and I can honestly say that the standard of play of some schoolboy teams is on par, if not better, than some grown men.

I saw technical skills displayed by the KC and Clarendon teams that were breathtaking to watch. And yet, many of those players do not transition well to the adult leagues. Why is this so, what goes wrong between leaving school and entering the big league? Is it the level of coaching, the bumpy playing surfaces?

KC came in hot, starting as favourites to win everything as they showed a level of football that we hadn’t seen in many years. But they had two bad games, their only two losses, at crucial times that cost them two titles — the Walker and Manning cups. Ironically, those losses were to teams that they had beaten earlier in the season — JC and STATHS.

But remember, football can be a cruel game, and somehow KC chose to have their two worst performances at the wrong time. Undaunted, the team rebounded and captured the coveted and cash-rich FLOW/ISSA Super Cup, the symbol of all-island football supremacy, plus a million dollars to boot.

There are detractors who said that the KC team was overrated, but this is a team that scored over 80 goals in the Manning Cup and has the leading goalscorer for two years in a row — Rashawn Makison. That young man was also the leading goalscorer in FLOW Super Cup, scoring two hat-tricks along the way.

The captain, Javain Brown, is without question the best central defender in the island and has also represented the senior Reggae Boyz. KC also has other national representatives, both at the junior and senior levels. Still, I will say that the best all-round player in the island is Tyreek McGhee from JC and the best goalkeeper, Jeadine White from STATHS.

There was much talk about the boys playing too much football in a short space of time, and maybe it’s justified. Clarendon College suffered from this as they were defeated by a Calabar team after getting only two days’ rest between matches. Calabar also suffered the same fate when JC gave them six love after they got only two days’ rest in-between matches. KC’s flat performance against STATHS may also have been as a result of them not getting enough rest between games. But such are the fortunes of football, and you just have to go out there and leave everything on the field. There can be no excuses, you rejoice when you win and take your licks when you lose.

The banter between rival past students was fun, but what I found amusing was the great lengths that some people would go to discredit KC, even digging up ancient research and quoting statistics. Have you ever wondered why people will go to such extreme measures to beat down KC? There’s a term in psychology called ‘penis envy’, but I won’t go there.

The fact is, unlike most other schools, KC has a deep football culture and programme, from the Under 14 team to the Under 16 Colts team that is reigning all-island champion and hasn’t lost a game in over five years. The transition to the senior team is natural, so recruitment is not on the table, as is the habit of some schoolboy football clubs that we all know about.

Ironically, KC has lost many players to other schools. It still burns me when I remember how five players defected to Wolmer’s, including the captain, a few years ago, and even this year, players went to STGC. But it doesn’t matter, KC still plays ball.

There was talk about the rural teams rising this year, but that was just talk. In the FLOW/ISSA Super Cup KC swept aside daCosta Cup champions Rusea’s 4-1, resulting in Rusea’s fans walking out before the game was over. Then KC defeated a highly touted STETHS team 3-0 in the final to win the title and this after beating JC for the third time in 12 months, having beaten them for the Walker Cup title last year, and twice this year. Is this a team that’s overrated? You can’t argue with facts.

Congrats to JC and Rusea’s for winning the Manning and daCosta cups. All in all, the football season was great and the fever was intense, and we look forward to more fever next year.

More time.

seido1@hotmail.com

Footnote: As much as I like the concept of the FLOW/ISSA Super Cup, as it pits the best urban teams against the best rural teams, I have one major complaint — the pricing of the tickets for the games. This is supposed to be a competition with schoolchildren for schoolchildren, yet many do not get a chance to watch the games due to the one flat price of tickets at $1,000. As a result, mostly adults were in the stands. Even a half price for children in uniform or with ID would have been great. It’s so unfair to those young schoolchildren. I saw one father with his four-year-old child turn back when he heard that he would have to pay $1,000 for his son. That should be addressed.