Jamaica College’s (JC) Head Coach Davion Ferguson has renewed a call for the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) to engage young players to assist in their transition from the high school level.

While acknowledging the JFF’s effort with an Under-22 team currently in training, Ferguson believes more needs to be done to foster and develop the country’s young footballing talents, which is an essential factor to gain success internationally.

The former national coach, who assisted in a number of youth programmes, made the plea after a talented All Manning/daCosta Cup team topped the CASA/Lauderhill Youth Classic in Florida on Sunday.

“These youngsters, most of them will go on to universities because they have had offers or have been approached by scouts or coaches, but I believe as a federation we need to organise a system. I am calling on the director of football to really take charge of not only this group, but all the youngsters we have in our country.

“We need to create a programme that will now aid in their development and help them to make the transition from this level to the next…the talent is obviously there, but what they need is a little more nurturing and exposure to working and training consistently at a higher level,” Ferguson told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

The All Manning/daCosta Cup coached by Ferguson and Lenny Hyde, who led Jamaica College and Clarendon College to the respective ISSA titles, defeated SF Soccer Academy 2-0 and Sharks of Boynton Beach 3-1 on their way to the final, where they hammered Kendal Under-19’s 6-1 on Sunday.

Ferguson praised the maturity and grit of the team, which included players from JC, Clarendon College, Kingston College and Camperdown to name a few.

“It was a wonderful experience, the boys got to showcase their skills on a good surface in an environment where there were a lot of scouts from various colleges, universities and academies. So they got to parade their skills on a huge stage, and for them that is critical at this point especially in their development,” Ferguson noted.

Despite the margin of victories, particularly in the final, Ferguson was quick to point out that the Jamaicans were by no means the top team on show, but did well to rise to the occasion in showcasing their worth.

“We had a lot of players exposed through this competition and I don’t want the scorelines to be taken that Jamaica was way above the other teams, the team we played in the final, I believe is the best of all the teams.

“But we had some good youngsters and we built gradually in the tournament because we only had one on- the-field training session with them and in-between games we had to be monitoring and organising,” Ferguson shared.

He continued: “So it was a really gallant effort from the boys, we have a few players who played three games within three days, so it was gruelling physically also, but they did well.

“They showed tenacity, they showed fight, but more so I believe the first half we played in the final was just top drawer. How we possessed the ball, how we moved the ball at pace on that surface was, for me, a high point of the tournament.”

— Sherdon Cowan