LUCEA, Hanover – Rusea’s High School’s Coach Dwayne Ambusley is happy that the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) daCosta Cup football competition will return this weekend.

He had expressed fear that the talent, which he argues is in abundance in the western end of the island, would go to waste without schoolboy football.

Schoolboy football has been on a break just shy of two years due to the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which forced the cancellation of last year’s competition and the late start this year.

“I don’t think we could go another season without football because most of the talent would have been lost from the system in the west in general, based on no football being played for the last two years,” Ambusley told the Jamaica Observer West earlier this week.

Like many schools, it will be starting over for the 11-time champions, who have brought back just three players from the 2019 team, one of who was a regular starter in goal, Chadwick Campbell, as well as Rahiem Lowe and Tyriek Crooks.

Ambusley said the preseason preparation fell way short of what he would have liked.

“It was difficult because we only have three sessions per week and most times some persons could not make it to training,” he noted.

And, to add insult to injury, their practice game against Cornwall College on Monday was called off due to heavy rain which caused flooding.

Ambusley is not deterred, however, noting that, “I am a bit optimistic based on what I am seeing, but my main concern is their fitness level.”

Ambusley will have a few more days to work on his team’s fitness as Rusea’s will play their first game next Wednesday when they face Petersfield High at WesPow Park in Tucker, St James.

“For us it is about taking things one game at a time and seeing how we can cope throughout the competition,” said the former Montego Bay United midfielder.

Playing away from the Colin Miller Sports Complex, he said, is not a big deal.

“In terms of not having ‘home games’… fans should not be too much of a problem as long as the venues selected are conducive to good football,” the coach argued.