LUCEA, Hanover — The 245-year-old Rusea’s High School Colin Miller Sports Complex is set to get a $35-million upgrade from Rusea’s BrotherSister Foundation Inc. The aim is to create a state-of-the-art facility.

Ground was broken last Saturday for the project which will be done in phases as the foundation drums up support for the initiative. So far it has secured $10 million.

“We need support. We need corporate Jamaica and sponsors to get on board and join hands with us to let this happen,” urged foundation President Troy Malcolm who said the Ministry of Education gave approval for the project in October 2021.

Made up of varying professionals, former DaCosta Cup players, alumni and other supporters of Rusea’s High, the foundation was established in 2020 to give back to the school and the community. According to its website, it is recognised as a tax-exempt charity in the US.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the sports complex upgrade had a $20-million-plus price tag. Inflation has now pushed that to about $35 million. Malcolm said the foundation tries to host a fund-raising event every quarter.

“We try to do a lot of the fund-raising on the North American side because the dollar exchange is much higher when you transfer the funds to Jamaica,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

He explained why they are pushing ahead with the project despite the challenges.

“That complex has been there for almost 40 years and not even a bathroom is over there. We are saying as BrotherSister Foundation that we need to change that. You can’t operate a complex and don’t even have one bathroom for the public,” he argued.

Construction is expected to begin, within a few weeks, on a state-of-the-art changing room that will include space for a conference room which can be used to generate funds for the school and maintain the complex. According to Malcolm, with limited resources from the Government, schools in Jamaica have to take a business-like approach to their everyday operations. So in addition to a 30-room male and female dormitory, there are also plans for a paid-membership gym.

Malcolm has strong ties to the school he is working feverishly to help. He was the first Rusea’s schoolboy football team captain that took the team to the DaCosta Cup finals in 1983. After serving as the team’s assistant coach between 1984 and 1991, he migrated to the US but his alma mater has always been important to him. So too are its students. He anticipates that the dormitory the foundation plans to build will improve training conditions for them. He can relate to the inadequacy of the current conditions.

“We were sleeping on desks, tables, and sponges. And [present students] are still doing that. We need to change that. We can’t have our student-athletes, soccer players or netballers sleeping in those kinds of conditions,” said Malcolm.

The planned dorm, he said, will provide a space where students can unwind after training and catch up on their studying to ensure they balance academics with sports.

Rusea’s Principal Donna Anderson has welcomed the project.

“It is a good initiative given that the complex has been there for the past 30 years. It is a welcome upgrade knowing very well that it will provide a holistic approach to sports,” she said.

The school, she added, does not have the resources to do such a project on its own.

“This is something that the community would have been looking forward to because for years the expectation would have been for us to be able to facilitate other type of sports and to house competition that would depend on an upgraded facility,” added Anderson.

During last Saturday’s event, the late principal of the school Colin Miller, who was instrumental in the creation of the complex in the 80s, was among those lauded for their contributions to Rusea’s over the years. Miller played a key role in building the school’s reputation as a powerhouse in school-level football. He died more than 30 years ago, so his wife, Velma, who is also an educator, collected the award on his behalf.

Emerson “Diggy” Henry, who has led the Rusea’s ISSA/DaCosta Cup team to multiple victories, was also among those honoured. So, too, was a former bus driver who transported the school’s football team for several years, the late Donald “Kitty Brown” Stephenson; along with former Seba United and Jamaica National player, the late Stephen “Shorty” Malcolm, a graduate of Rusea’s.

Over the years, the school has won 11 DaCosta Cup trophies, with the most recent in 2017. It is also the only high school on the island with four schoolboy football titles — DaCosta Cup, Ben Francis Cup Nutriment Shield and Oliver Shield — all of which were won in 1985.

Rusea’s was founded on December 22, 1777. It was named after its French refugee founder, Martin Rusea, who left instructions for all his real and personal estate to be used to establish a trust school for the children of Hanover, in gratitude for the hospitality shown to him. The school, which has two campuses, is the fourth- oldest continuously operated high school in Jamaica, after Wolmer’s Boys’.