MONTEGO BAY, St James — Three high-profile schoolboy football coaches in western Jamaica are calling for the staging of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) daCosta Cup competition this year.

They say, however, that the players’ health and well-being must be of paramount importance.

The ISSA, organisers of high schools sports, has began preliminary consultations on the possibility of the staging of the 2020 competition in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that has cause sports around the globe to grind to a halt. This include, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) pulling the plug on the 2019/20 club season.

Dr Dean Weatherly of Cornwall College, Godfrey Drummond of Manning’s School and Dwayne Ambusley of Rusea’s High— all three schools advanced past the first round of the competition last year— believe the competition should go ahead, but at the same time, are mindful of the possibility of a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how it could affect the players.

The JFF cancelled the Red Stripe Premier League with a handful of games still to be played, and set September as the earliest date when organised football could resume.

ISSA is to decide the fate of the 2020 season by the end of June after a series of consultations with all major stakeholders.

ISSA President Keith Wellington has warned that schools hoping to participate in the competition should not start training until after June 30, adding that the competition would certainly not start before October, a month later than usual.

Drummond told the Jamaica Observer West last week, that the timing of the competition would be crucial, “once it is that we have established a protocol in the schools as to how we can operate, then we can start the competition.”

Weatherly, who has led Cornwall College to 11 titles, including four daCosta Cup titles and has piloted the only non-Kingston-based school to win the ISSA Champions Cup, said it would be best to watch how the coronavirus is behaving later this year “before anything is done”.

“I think the football season should be held, but first we have to see the health situation, and if there will be a second wave of the COVID,” Weatherly argued, stating that “if not, then I think the season should be held say from November to February next year.”

Added Weatherly: “We have to watch and see what is going on, first on the wider scale around the world and also in our communities before we make a move.”

Ambusley, who played for Rusea’s High before taking the helm two seasons ago, reasoned that “given as the health minister has said we would have to learn to live with the virus, we must find ways to safely stage the competition.”

He believes that October might still be too early for the start of the season, and also sees a shortened version of the competition with the possibility of playing just the three main schoolboy football competitions—daCosta Cup, Manning Cup and Oliver Shield.

“I honestly think we could have a competition this year,” the Rusea’s coach stressed.

“Whether we could get it to begin in October would be a big challenge. I think it could begin sometime in November and have somewhat of a shorter version. I am thinking of having the daCosta Cup, Manning Cup and the Oliver Shield, leave the knockout competitions out for this season.”

He stressed, however, that “all this would depend on the government”.

“Everything would depend on the directives of the Ministry of Health, that is my opinion, since they are saying we are going to have to learn how to cope with the virus.”

Drummond said his views differed somewhat from what most coaches are thinking, but agreed with Weatherly and Ambusley regarding the late start of the season.

“We have to monitor the crowds that will be at the games and we still need to monitor training sessions. We have to consider the new wave of the virus and we don’t want to over expose the youngsters,” added Drummond.

The former Manning’s player said he had advised his bosses at Manning’s that training would not be before June 30 in keeping with the ISSA’s mandate.

“To me, it’s more important to have the youths healthy and safe than to risk it. We have the Centre for Disease Control [CDC] and world trends, and too many coaches are pushing for the competition as they have players they have taken in, and they are risking losing them without them playing,” he argued.

A mid-November start, he said, would be ideal.

“The format [of the competition] might have to be changed, tweak the rounds and the number of games that will be played. Maybe eliminate return-round games, things like that. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures and certainly we are in uncharted territory, we have to do things differently, we may have to do things very, very differently than we have ever done before, and so we may have to change the way we structure the competition,” he argued.

Drummond, who is also seeking the office as president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), said ISSA could also look to change the present zone structures.

“We might want to put more teams in a zone and eliminate the return round, we may have to play a shortened format for the knockouts, but that is the logistics for ISSA to work out, but at the end of the day, the safety and security of my players are paramount, and if it is at all that any of my players will be exposed to the virus any at all, then the decision will be to withdraw,” said Drummond.