Rudolph Speid joined a very prestigious list of coaches who have won three Jamaica Premier League (JPL) titles. However, the Cavalier boss says his individual achievements are minor compared to the club’s accomplishments over the past few years.

Cavalier won their second straight JPL title and their third in the last five years last Friday after beating Mount Pleasant Football Academy 6-5 on penalties after a scoreless full and extra time. It was just the third time a club has won consecutive league titles since 1991, joining Arnett Gardens (2001 and 2002) and Portmore United (2018 and 2019).

The triumph also made Cavalier the joint sixth most successful club locally after winning their fourth title. Only Portmore United, with seven titles, and Harbour View, Tivoli Gardens, Arnett Gardens, and Santos with five titles each, have won more.

It’s a remarkable rise for the club, which regained promotion in 2012 after their relegation from the league in 1995.

Speid, who is one of the only coaches in the region to hold a Concacaf A licence, is now being hailed as the best in Jamaica and the Caribbean due to his recent achievements, including leading the club to the Concacaf Caribbean Cup title last December and the Concacaf Champions Cup quarter-finals last March, where they lost to Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami after a gutsy performance over both legs.

However, Speid says the commitment to the club and its fans mean more than any personal accolade.

“I don’t know if I’m the best — what I know is based on how the team’s season went, we have some dedicated fans and our greatest desire is to not let them down,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “So what we do is try our best to not let them down, so no matter what, we fight until the end, because we don’t let our fans down or the rest of the players [who] aren’t playing.”

He continued, “That’s our greatest motivation, not if someone believes I’m the best. I suppose it doesn’t matter — if it is, it is, but if it’s not, I’m sure there’s still going to be arguments one way or other on who’s the best. But since the last eight years, we have been to the semi-finals every single year, since the pandemic we’ve won five finals — been in four and won three, so it’s the club coming of age right now.”

It was an unusually long season for the back-to-back champions after playing a record 55 games since last August due to their domestic and regional commitments.

After finishing fourth in the JPL regular season table, some believed Cavalier would run out of gas but Speid says his team is always capable of finding another gear.

“What we did was temper our expectations throughout the league because we know it was still a play-off system. Once we reached the play-offs, we just put everything we had on the line. It was very difficult against Portmore — we had to go to extra time to win that. Again, a hard game against Arnett Gardens and extra time [against Mount Pleasant],” he said.

“The truth is no matter what happens, there’s always a way. Cavalier are notorious for finding a way to do the best we can and hope things work in our favour, and I think that’s what happened.”

Despite beating Speid’s men in 2023, the St Ann-based Mount Pleasant have now lost consecutive finals despite heavy investment in players and technical staff.

Speid believes Cavalier’s victory should inspire less resourced clubs to make it to the very top.

“We did it organically; more than 80 per cent of our players would have played for Cavalier as a teenager, so I think that’s the right way,” he said.

“This victory wasn’t just for us, it’s for every other team who believe that they would have to have lots of money to play in this league and do well. [But] we have proven that with the right development project, right coaching and management around the team and players who are willing to work hard, it’s possible for teams to do it without much resources.”

Cavalier are expected to begin preseason in the coming weeks as they gear up to defend their Caribbean Cup title, which kicks off in August.