ON Saturday the 67th season of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) daCosta Cup competition is set to kick off, and expectations are high for the first fully fledged schoolboy football season in three years.

Just over 80 schools are scheduled to participate in the competition that is scheduled to end in December when six champions will be crowned islandwide.

In addition to the daCosta Cup, the biggest competition in the island in terms of the number of teams participating, there are also the Ben Francis KO for schools outside of Kingston; the Manning Cup and Walker Cup for Corporate Area schools; as well as the two national trophies — the ISSA Champions Cup and the Olivier Shield, symbols of all-island schoolboy football supremacy since 1909.

No one knew in December 2019, when we ended the season on a high, that we would have to wait three years for another complete season, that is one with the customary home-and-away first round, second round, quarter-finals and semi-finals.

In 2020 COVID-19 ruled out any hopes of a season, and last year — thanks to the innovation of ISSA and the corporation of the Government — there was a season, of sorts.

After the wait-and-see period following the start of the school term last September and the hammering out of the details, the 2021 season started later than usual and saw games being played at specified venues without fans, there were less zones due to lesser entries, and there was a break as the season extended into January for the first time in living memory.

It might not have been what we wanted or what we hoped for but, as the saying goes: “It was better than nothing” as to deny the players and supporters a second season of the sport would have been too much, it was also thought.

No doubt the fans — who, for the most part, found innovative ways to watch games through fences and over walls last year — will welcome the opportunity to watch games from better vantage points inside venues.

The players, most of whom would have played in the junior competitions last year, will undoubtedly be ready to strut their stuff on the ‘big stage’ in front of fans, friends and family.

Additionally, schools will welcome the opportunity to once again benefit from hosting games.

One of the lessons the last two years have reminded us about is that we cannot take anything for granted as there will always be situations which we do not have much control over.

For generations, early September has been a time of hope and expectations as all the schools would start from zero points and undoubtedly most, if not all schools and their fans, would hope they would be the ones left standing when all is said and done.

We must be mindful, however, that schoolboy football is intended to be an extension of the offerings from the physical education department of each school, no matter the millions that are ‘invested’ by a handful of schools.

There have been firsts even before the season started, with schools signing national representatives from other Caribbean territories to bolster their chances of winning titles.

No doubt this was a result of ISSA’s rules restricting the numbers of transfer students who can play for a school at any one time.

Some will say this is yet another way of beating the system but those who seek to benefit from these imported players will tell you they are giving others an opportunity.

This subject might be for another time and space so, for now, let’s hope for a successful and incident-free schoolboy season.