WHEN the Kemps Hill High School team walks out onto the field at the National Stadium on Wednesday to face St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) in the ISSA daCosta Cup football semi-finals it will be the realisation of a promise they made to themselves last season.

A year ago Kiegon Mitchell, who had then completed his first season as Kemps Hill coach, took the team to watch the semi-finals between Garvey Maceo High and Glenmuir High, two teams from their first-round zone.

He said his thought then was, “If they can do it, so can we.”

They did just that on Saturday, qualifying the Clarendon-based school for its first-ever semi-finals in an ISSA under-19 competition.

Mitchell said they had also made a vow that they would be playing on the National Stadium field.

For the second-straight season Kemps Hill finished third in their first-round group. But unlike last year when they only got to the round of 16 and were then knocked out at the first round of the Ben Francis Cup, this year they are in the last four.

The other semi-finalists — STETHS, Glenmuir High and Dinthill Technical — have combined to win 25 titles, including nine daCosta Cups, 14 Ben Francis Cups and two Olivier Shields, at the senior level of Jamaican schoolboy football.

Mitchell told the Jamaica Observer that they have no issue being the dark horses of the semi-finals.

“We enjoy being the underdogs,” he said on Sunday, still basking in their historic achievement. “We know we are nobody’s favourites but these players seem to rise to the occasion time after time, and they enjoy the pressure that comes with going deep into the season.”

Kemps Hill were fourth after the first seven games in Zone I but rallied to beat both Glenmuir High and last year’s champions Garvey Maceo to finish third. That was enough for them to advance to the round of 32, and from there they continued to defy logic and the odds.

In all three play-off rounds Kemps Hill lost their first game but rallied to win the next two.

“There is no way we could have planned that but the players seem to play better with their backs against the wall and they have to produce the goods.”

In the round of 32 they lost 0-2 to Cornwall College but rebounded to defeat Cedric Titus High and Frome Technical, getting through on goal difference.

In the round of 16 they lost 0-4 to STETHS in a chaotic game which ended with them having nine players on the field — and at one stage they were close to walking before the full-time whistle. They bounced back to hand then-high-flying Ocho Rios High their first loss of the season, and hammered Old Harbour 5-0.

In the quarter-final round they went down to Glenmuir High but avenged their previous loss to Cornwall College in the next game, before completing the semi-final entry with a 1-0 win over McGrath High on Saturday.

Mitchell refuses the notion that his team has “overachieved” this season.

“[We have retained] 90 per cent of last year’s team, and we have quality players, and we worked harder this season, and the players turned up when we asked them to,” he said.

“[It is] a great feeling. We celebrated after the McGrath game and I am happy for the players, as they worked hard,” he added.

The Kemps Hill coach singled out attacking player Shemar Daley and goalkeeper Omario Chambers as integral players, both of whom he expects to continue to lead the team to even greater history.

MITCHELL…these players seem to rise to the occasion time after time, and they enjoy the pressure that comes with going deep into the season