Garvey Maceo, KC battle for all-island schoolboy football supremacy
INTER-SECONDARY Schools Sports Association (ISSA) daCosta Cup champions Garvey Maceo High will be chasing history and redemption when they face many-time winners Kingston College (KC) in the Olivier Shield play-off at St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) Sports Complex in Santa Cruz this afternoon.
Kick off is set for 3:00.
The contest will be a repeat of the 2020-21 all-island play-off when Kingston College won their eighth outright hold on the title. Then they won 2-0 at STETHS Sports Complex.
The teams advanced to the play-off a week ago after contrasting wins in their respective urban and rural area finals. Kingston College romped to a 3-1 win over St Catherine High in the Manning Cup showpiece.
Garvey Maceo beat McGrath High on penalties after they came from behind with a last-minute equaliser in a 1-1 scoreline following regulation time. Along the way they beat red-hot favourites Glenmuir High in the semi-finals, also on penalties.
Lester Hibbert, the Garvey Maceo coach, noted the significance of the clash against KC.
“[We are] chasing history as we have never won this title before,” he said on Friday, adding they remember the loss to Kingston College.
“This is our time for redemption,” he said.
Hibbert, who guided Garvey Maceo — known to their fans as the Cubans — to their third daCosta Cup title in his first season as head coach, said his boys are ready for the task at hand.
“We know Kingston College is a very good team, and we have to pay them their respects, but we know what we can do,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
“[The coaching staff has] emphasised the importance of this game; we are not pressuring them, but we are taking this game seriously.”
Vassell Reynolds, the Kingston College head coach who joined a select group of coaches who have won the Manning and daCosta Cup competitions, has never won the Olivier Shield.
He, however, said: “Personal accolades will be secondary, this will have to be a collective effort and a win for Kingston College.”
Reynolds acknowledged the Olivier Shield as the symbol of high school football supremacy.
“This is a very important game, and we recognise that and we are taking it very seriously. We really want to win this one,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Friday.
He said there were not many secrets left for either team at this stage of the season as they would have seen each other play multiple times. “We have put our plans in place and it is now for the boys to go out,” Reynolds noted.
