Keith Wellington, principal of St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) and president of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), has come out swinging in what he said is an attack on his integrity by a colleague principal, Jasford Gabriel, principal of Manchester High School.

Wellington, who spoke to the media at Saturday’s official opening of a sporting goods store in Kingston, expressed his concern that his image and integrity was being tarnished by statements made by Gabriel recently.

Despite both men insisting they were close friends and Wellington saying he had dinner with the Manchester High principal last week, there is a war of words following Gabriel’s assertions in the media that the daCosta Cup fixtures had been doctored to give STETHS and teams from Zone E an unfair advantage.

In a well-circulated letter, Gabriel had said STETHS, who were runners-up in their first round zone, had been given two home games in the round of 32, something that only zone winners should get and they were also placed in easier groups, avoiding the stronger teams from Clarendon.

While saying he would leave it to the competitions chairman, Ewan Scott, and daCosta Cup Chairman Linvern Wright to address, Wellington said the attack on his character was of some concern to him.

“Anybody who knows me and would have known me for years, know that I’m somebody who is very concerned about my image, about my public image and how people view me,” he said, “Because for me, my most valuable asset is who I am, and I think that my integrity is something that I treasure.

“I don’t get myself involved with anything at all that will raise concerns about my motive, so to see my colleague and somebody who I have very strong relationship with …I’m very concerned about that, and that is something that I want to be addressed,” Wellington said.

“I’ve said to both the competitions chairman and the competitions officer that they need to address whatever concern is being raised about STETHS itself, but the issue of the integrity of the organisation, of the president, of the competitions, that is something that I think that I need to address,” Wellington said.

Wellington gave an example of May Day High having concerns about playing against Manchester High at Manchester High but were told that the venue for the finals had been set from early on.

“May Day was suggesting that the final be moved to Friendship or another place in the parish and we said no,” said Wellington pointing out the complaint that this was to the benefit of Manchester High and said also had Manchester High had won their first-round group in the daCosta Cup as they had done for an extended period.

“They would have played three games in Mandeville,” and asked rhetorically, “was it that ISSA was now setting the schedule for them?”

The ISSA president said there were numerous other examples of situations like this, “where, yes, some people may view it as not being acceptable, but we have a policy that we follow [and] Mr Gabriel, as a member of the association, and who is very vocal in our meetings, and he’s listened to, so he’s free to come to our meetings and make suggestions, make recommendations that I don’t have the power to overturn.”

Wellington said while Gabriel’s letter outlining the concerns were made public before it was discussed with ISSA, as a matter of protocols, competition rules were not changed midway a season.