McKay Security lock down Business House League Awards
McKay Security walked away with the top awards at the Western Sports/KSAFA Business House League Awards ceremony which was held recently.
KSAFA Business House President Wayne Shaw says he is disappointed by the number of red and yellow cards shown throughout the tournament. The league teams played a total of 50 games, scored 195 goals, with 22 red cards and 192 yellow cards issued.
“I think that was too much for a Business House competition, but the games were close and competitive, so I guess that’s why there were so many cards,” Shaw reasoned.
The competition returned after a three-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 14 participating teams including three newcomers in, Kingston Wharves, Kingston Freeport, and Digicel.
The competition was played in a zone format this year but is likely to return to the league format for the 2024 season. Shaw is expecting many more teams to return to the competition next year.
“I expect that for the 2024 season we will go back to our 40 teams,” he said. “A lot of teams did not budget for this competition [this year] so we expect that next season we’ll go back to our original numbers, and we will have our usual 20 teams in both divisions.”
McKay Security won the league competition and also the champions of champions title when they beat Seprod in that final.
The knockout (KO) final was contested on Sunday, September 10, with Seprod beating Metrodade 2-1.
Tarrique Campbell of Seprod and Dwayne Smith of Bank of Jamaica were the leading scorers of the knockout competition with five goals each. Shamarie Dallas of Seprod was the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the KO final.
The league final was held on Sunday, September 24 at Winchester Park between defending champions Petrojam and McKay Security. After playing to a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes of football, McKay won 4-3 on penalties.
First-time entrants Kingston Wharves made it all the way to the quarter-finals of the league.
The Raymond Quallo Challenge trophy (Champion of Champions) was played on Sunday, October 1, 2023, between the KO champion Seprod Limited and league champion McKay Security, with McKay Security coming out with a 3-1 victory.
Omar Thompson of the RJRGLEANER Communications Group was the top scorer for the league with nine goals. Kurt Richards of McKay Security was named MVP for the league final while Aurane Phoenix of McKay Security was named coach of the season. Rodney McPherson of McKay was the winning manager.
Former national senior women’s football team Head Coach Lorne Donaldson was also honoured with the Abe Alexander Award.
Kesla Anderson was named referee of the season, while Rolonzo Bennett was named assistant referee of the season.