SOME of the island’s best young footballers will be on display this afternoon during the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association All-Manning and All-daCosta matches at the National Stadium as the schoolboy football season officially comes to an end.

The highlight fixture will be the Wata All-daCosta Cup team battle with the Digicel All-Manning Cup team, starting at 6:30 pm.

The rural area ‘all stars’ will be coached by Lenworth “Teacha” Hyde, who led Clarendon College (CC) to the daCosta Cup and Olivier Shield, and Andrew Peart who guided Glenmuir to the Champions Cup crown and the final of the daCcosta Cup.

Some of the standout players include the season’s leading goalscorer, Keheim Dixon of Clarendon College. Seven other players hail from CC, including Captain Malachi Douglas, while Glenmuir have five representatives including Captain Kyle Gordon. The rest of the squad is made up of players from Garvey Maceo High, Dinthill Technical, Frome Technical and St Elizabeth Technical.

Although the match is an exhibition, Coach Hyde is expecting a tough encounter.

“We want to win it. We’re the defending champions and we’re going to try to defend our title. There’s the rivalry with rural and urban so that alone makes it competitive so it’s a showcase; it’s a game that we want to win. It’s a game for the spectators, and we would like everybody to come out and watch this game because it’s going to be a spectacular matchup with both teams. It will be a good, entertaining game and we’re looking forward to the game. It’s going to be a good day for football,” said Hyde.

The urban area ‘all stars’ will be headed by Craig Butler, Manning Cup winning coach with Mona High, and Devon Anderson with runners-up Hydel High.

Robino Gordon and Denzel McKenzie are among the four Mona players in the squad, with captains Akeem Bernard and Dante Peralto currently listed as reserves. Hydel boasts three, including standout defender and national Under-20 call-up Michael Forbes. The rest of the squad is completed with players from St George’s College, Jamaica College, Kingston College, Tivoli Gardens High and St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS).

The opening match will kick off at 3 pm, with the All-daCosta Scholastic taking on the All-Manning Scholastic. Both teams are made up of schoolboy football players who did well academically throughout the season.

There will also be an awards ceremony at 5:00 pm when ISSA will make presentations to Mona High and Clarendon College, as winners of their respective competitions, as well as handout individual awards including the golden boot, which Clarendon’s Dixon is in line to win after scoring nearly 40 goals across all competitions.