THE 2017 high school football season is over for most football fans after Saturday’s Olivier Shield game where Manning Cup champions Jamaica College beat daCosta Cup holders Rusea’s High 3-2 for their fifth straight hold, bringing to an end an eventful season and coach Miguel Coley’s stint at the Old Hope Road school.

Coley finally admitted what most people knew – that he is leaving high school football for the overseas professional scene, as he seeks to widen his skill base.

The season is not quite over, however, as the Under-14 and Under-16 competitions are still in progress. The Rural Area champions are to be crowned at Manchester High tomorrow, and the all-island finals will be played at the same venue next week.

These are the competitions that will allow players to feed into the daCosta Cup and Manning Cup teams, and these players will be the ones in the limelight in the next two or three years, but there has been a worrying theme over the last few seasons.

At the senior level there have been complaints of overwork, with some teams playing three games per week for months on end, as the organisers at ISSA rush to get the season over and done with by the start of the Christmas break.

Players on these teams, particularly the Rural Area competitions, often have to criss-cross the island, making two or three long trips in a week or less, and the impact on these youngsters between the ages of 11 and 15 can be more taxing than on the older players.

Under -14 players are just beginning to develop, and overwork at this age could have far-reaching consequences on their bodies.

One school, Old Harbour High, who were knocked out of the Under-14 competition on Monday, had to travel from St Catherine to Portland three times for one game.

The first time they had almost reached Portland when they were told the game would not be played because of a flooded field; on the second trip just days later, no referees showed up; and after finally playing and winning the game, they were rewarded with two trips – the first to Montego Bay to face Cornwall College on Thursday, then to Clarendon to face Lennon High on Saturday, before hosting STETHS the following Monday.

Last year, Cornwall College travelled to Mandeville three times in less than 10 days to play the semi-finals and finals of the Rural Area Under-14 and the all-island play-offs.

That schedule would be taxing to Premier League players, let alone boys who are just entering puberty. In my view, ISSA in their deliberations must find ways to lessen the impact on the bodies of these young players.

It doesn’t help that some schools start Under -14 and Under -16 training as early as August, just when boys who are a few months removed from primary and prep schools, who were playing football mostly for fun, suddenly find themselves playing football for five straight months.