Chairperson of the Junior Cup All-Island Under-11 competition Paula Pinnock has described this year’s stagings a massive success and said that she is expecting a much bigger tournament for 2023.

The championship, which attracted schools from across the country, ended on Saturday with Emmanuel Christian Academy (ECA) from the Corporate Area beating St James’ Corinaldi Avenue Primary 2-0 in the final, which was played at the Constant Spring Sports Complex.

Rousseau Primary from Kingston captured third place after defeating Bethel Primary from Trelawny 5-4 on penalties after the game ended 2-2 draw at full time.

“It was a success because we had a plan to create an opportunity for the schools at the primary level to have more ball time and we achieved that,” said Pinnock.

“We had over 500 kids participating in the tournament from 36 schools from across the island and we are pleased with the response from the schools, from the administrators, from the parents and, of course, from the players,” she said.

Pinnock said he particularly loved the keen levels of competition and the gender diversity of teams.

“The competition on the field was extremely good… good in the sense that in the final, we had a girl on the Corinaldi team and the third-place winners also had a girl on their squad,” Pinnock said.

She shared that they are now hoping to have a lot more schools in the competition next year because this championship forms part of the foundational level of the overall development process, which in the long term will benefit the national programme.

“We are hoping that more schools, especially from the rural areas, will be able to participate going forward because they have had less ball time over the years,” said Pinnock.

“Some schools are still wearing gears provided to them for a similar tournament in 2013 because they just have not had a similar exposure,” she noted..

“It justified what we are doing that there is a need for more engagement at the youth level, at the grass-roots level and this is what the youth football league is trying to achieve. I think if we want to truly build out the national programmes — the Reggae Girlz and the Reggae Boyz — then the feeder programmes, which begin at the primary level, need to be enhanced,” Pinnock said..

ECA received $150,000 for winning the competition, while Corinaldi took home $75,000 for second place, Rousseau, meantime, walked away with $25,000. All three top finishers also received trophies.