A group of old boys from Dunoon Park Technical High School are coming to the rescue of their institution in an effort to return the East Kingston-based school to its former football glory.

The Dunoon Old Boys Association (DOBA) is led by Ricky Valentine, along with former Reggae Boy Altimont “Freddie” Butler.

Dunoon became a force in schoolboy football in the late 1980s with Butler as their star player and achieved glory in 1998 when they won both the Manning Cup and Walker Cup, while they shared the Olivier Shield with Clarendon College.

However, since then, the school has slipped away from the limelight and has become a mere participant in the competitions in recent times.

But now there is a push by DOBA to turn things around and even though there was no competition this year, they have made donations to the school in order to re-energise the football programme, as well as other sporting programmes.

Items such as training gear, match gear, balls, cones and bibs were handed over to the school recently.

Valentine, who was on hand to make the presentation, explained what it is that the past students are trying to achieve.

“The donations that we have made are not just for the Manning Cup programme. The equipment and gears are for the Under-19, Under-16 and Under-14 programmes. We are on a path to restore sporting pride in the school and we are beginning with football.

“We know we can’t achieve the level of success we want to, without building from the ground up, so the junior teams are also a part of our focus,” he said.

Valentine explained that the items donated were sourced overseas and then brought into the island for the school.

“A group of us, who are locally based, along with others who are in the diaspora, in places such as Dubai, the UK, Canada and the US partnered to source and purchase the items for football and netball and then we brought them here to the school from the United States.

“We have had these items from in the summer when training was expected to begin for the football season. The donations were supposed to be made then, but after the postponement and then subsequent cancellation of the season, we decided to make them available to the school now, for use in the future,” he explained.

Valentine, who was a student at the school during the 1980s, is hoping that this is the beginning of something special at Dunoon and is hopeful that other old boys will come on board to aid in the effort.

“We want to restore the school to where we were when we were competing for trophies. Largely because of lack of proper structure and the lack of funds necessary to purchase equipment for the type of programme that we would like to see, football has suffered, so we want to address that.”

Valentine also shared that DOBA is about more than just sports at the school.

“We are also involved in mentorship, scholarships and internship at the school. Right now, we are providing scholarships to two boys, where we pay their school fees and provide uniforms.

“DOBA is a registered legal entity and we are moving surefootedly to assist the school in whatever way we can, primarily through sporting programmes, starting with football,” he concluded.

In addition to Butler, other notable names involved in DOBA include Omar Edwards, who was a member of the Under-17 coaching staff before heading to Turks and Caicos Islands, and Lamar Morgan, a fitness trainer for the national programme.