Jamaica College (JC) were in a celebratory mood Monday (Dec 2) as the school display the prestigious ISSA Digicel Manning Cup in front of a packed auditorium during their Monday morning devotion.

On Saturday, JC won their 30th Manning Cup title by defeating St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) 5-4 on penalties.

JC have won seven of the last eight titles. Doting JC principal, Wayne Robinson, made it clear that the school’s dominance will not be curtailed despite the new transfer rules by the InterSecondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) which limits the number of players that can be used starting in 2020.

“It will not affect JC. If you noticed two years ago JC won every single football trophy available from Under-14. In every year we are competitive at every level,” Robinson told the BUZZ. “With our football tradition and our football culture, people come to JC because they love JC and because they love football from first form. We are one of the people that transfer and are in the market, that’s part of our culture too.”

He added: “By the way, they have highlighted us only because we have won so many times. But look at the KC team for example and how many people came from Cornwall from that. Look at Clarendon [College], look how many people have transferred. Look at the big side (Clarendon College) that Lenny (Lenworth Hyde) played on in the 70s. It’s not a new thing. Look at the great Vere teams, the thing of transfers has been going on for ages. Some of our best athletes we have didn’t start out at those schools, they got opportunities at those schools. That’s a part of the game”.

Over the years, the small or minor

schools often complained that they can’t develop mainly because the bigger

schools constantly take away their top players and that has prompted the ruling

body to implement the new rule which will allow only three transferred players

to be eligible for selection.