The new Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) schoolboy football season begins today, and with it comes hope.

Hope by many teams for a better season, better performances and for some silverware.

One of the schools looking for a better season is Vauxhall High. After a forgettable 2018-2019 season, the east Kingston-based school is looking for a much better season this year.

Head Coach Keon Broderick had hoped for a good season last year, but found his squad depleted as a number of his top players were recruited by other schools in late August.

But things are better now and Broderick is confident that his team will be able to match up to the more highly fancied teams they will come up against in Group E in the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup.

The top two ranked teams in the group are many-time champions Jamaica College and the highly touted Wolmer’s Boys’ School. They are expected to advance from the group to the next round, but Vauxhall are ready to throw a spoke in the wheel of the “big boys”.

Broderick believes his team possesses all the trademarks of what successful teams are made of.

“We pride ourselves on being tactically disciplined, whether it’s in the attacking phase or the defensive phase,” he noted.

While training during the summer months is a critical part of preparations for the season, preseason tournaments, which have become increasingly popular, are now playing a big role in the preparation for most teams.

Vauxhall were invited to be a part of the Insports Preseason Challenge Cup and have taken full advantage of the opportunity, going on to defeat Holy Trinity on penalties in the final.

“The main objective was to get the guys playing good football. Initially, we started out working in the mornings and then playing the games in the evening, and then the objective shifted when we saw that we could win this competition,” he said.

The Challenge Cup has provided the perfect segue into the start of the new season and the highly tactical coach could not be happier.

“We needed hard, quality games and we have gotten three of them in this competition so far, and it will help us a whole lot going into the Manning Cup competition, especially with the group we are in with JC and Wolmer’s.”

The coach also had a warning for JC and Wolmer’s ahead of the start of the new season.

“We have a lot of respect for those teams, but we are not fearful of them. We know what we possess as a team. Tactically, I think that we are one of the best teams in the country and we are just going to go out there with confidence and just play football, and the best team will win.”

As fate would have it Vauxhall will begin their season away to Wolmer’s Boys’ on today’s opening day and will know just how prepared they are to be the upsetter they are promising to be.