Raring to go
MONTEGO BAY, St James
The new Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) football season kicks off on Saturday with 23 games in the daCosta Cup competition—including seven in western Jamaica—almost two years after the last competition was held.
The novel coronavirus pandemic wiped out the entire 2020 season and also caused an unusually late start this year, approximately 10 weeks after the traditional early September kick-off.
Five former champions from western Jamaica will kick-start their title chase on Saturday — Cornwall College, Herbert Morrison Technical, and St James High in Zone A, as well as Godfrey Stewart High and Frome Technical in Zone B as another and former winner Rusea’s High will start their campaign next week.
Among the raft of protocols that were agreed on between ISSA and the various governmental agencies are that games will be played at secure venues where crowd control can be maintained and sanitisation carried out.
There will be double-headers on most days when games are scheduled.
Irwin High and William Knibb Memorial grounds will host first-round games in Zone A, while Llandilo and WesPow Park will host games in Zone B.
On Saturday, Cornwall College, who made it to the final and semi-finals, respectively, in the last two seasons will take on Irwin High in the second game at Irwin after Herbert Morrison Technical play Maldon High.
Herbert Morrison are returning to Zone A for the first time in nine years after they had switched to Zone C due to overcrowding in Zone A.
William Knibb will host Spot Valley in the first game in Martha Brae before Holland High and St James High meet in the second game.
In Zone B, Godfrey Stewart will play Manning’s School in the first game at Llandilo after which Green Island and Petersfield High will meet, while Frome Technical and Green Pond High will play at WesPow Park, starting at 1:30pm.
Green Pond will be playing in Zone B for the first time since entering the daCosta Cup competition in 2008.
The school opted to make the move after nine schools had entered for Zone A, while Zone B had only six teams.
