MONTEGO BAY, St James – There will be an increase in the number of schools from western Jamaica taking part when the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association daCosta Cup football competition kicks off on September 10 with 22 teams down to participate.

Fifteen western schools participated in last year’s competition that was played under revised rules due to restrictions that were in place because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The plans for this year are that schools will return to their regular geographic zones, with the first round set to be played on a home-and-away basis.

The zones, four of the 15 will be based in western Jamaica, based on the recently announced format at a meeting of coaches and sports masters held at Manchester High School two weeks ago.

Last year, the competition started later than the usual early September and was carried over into January, saw just two zones in western Jamaica for the 15 schools that took part, with games being played at selected venues.

Green Pond High will return to Zone A after competing in Zone B last year and will join Anchovy High, Cornwall College, Irwin High, Maldon High, and St James High.

Frome Technical, Green Island High, Hopewell High, Merlene Ottey High, and Rusea’s High will contest Zone B, while Herbert Morrison and William Knibb Memorial return to Zone C where they will join the returning Cedric Titus High and Muschett High, as well as Spot Valley High.

Mannings School, last season’s beaten finalists, will lead Zone D where they will have Belmont Academy, Black River High, Godfrey Stewart, Grange Hill, and Petersfield High.

The top two teams from each of the 15 zones and the two best third-placed teams will advance to the second round that will be played on a single game knock-out basis.

Sixteen teams will play in the quarter-finals in four groups of four teams each and the zone winners will advance to the semi-finals.