Denham Town High School will be seeking to maintain their stranglehold on the West Kingston Schoolboy trophy when they play Tivoli Gardens High on Friday at the Tivoli Gardens High School at 3:30 pm.

Admission is free.

This will be the third staging of the event which started in 2016 where Denham Town will be hunting their third consecutive lien on the trophy.

Former national player Dennis “Den Den” Hutchinson, who is a part of the organising committee, said he hopes this venture will help return Tivoli Gardens High to their glory days and make Denham Town High School a force to be reckoned with.

“The idea came about because we had viewed Tivoli Gardens as one of the top footballing high schools for a number of years. Subsequent to that there has been a decline in the performance of the team,” said Hutchinson, who led Tivoli Gardens to the Manning Cup title in 1976.

Hutchinson, who then left Tivoli Gardens and led Clarendon College to the daCosta Cup title in 1977, noted that successful high schools have a strong past students’ influence.

“Traditional high schools like JC, “George’s”, KC and some rural area schools like Clarendon and STETHS, their past students are strong behind their sporting disciplines,” he noted.

“So if we through sensitisation can get people on board and get more past students on board, not that past students are not on board, but to get more fans on it, will help strengthen the programme,” he added.

Tivoli Gardens High made it to the second round of the Manning Cup last year where they were eliminated 10-1 on aggregate by Kingston College, while Denham Town High made the Manning Cup second round in 2016.

Both Tivoli Gardens High and Denham Town High are drawn in Group D of the Manning Cup alongside Bridgeport High, Innswood High and Greater Portmore and this clash will be a precursor for what will be a massive West Kingston derby.

But it’s much more than football, Hutchinson noted, as several people will be honoured for outstanding contribution to the schools and their surrounding communities.

“Twenty-nine persons from sports, culture and education will be acknowledged for their effort and success and we want to honour them to show our appreciation for what they have done for the community and the schools,” said Hutchinson.

“The violence is one thing and we are trying to keep the youths in school. We have a few students that look up academically. But for the most part, we have them coming out of school with nothing,” he added.

“We believe sports can help with the value of education and as a result we can minimise the crime and violence in the communities,” Hutchinson ended.