On April 8, 2003, Twenty-three years to the day yesterday, the Jamaica College (JC) community woke up to a newspaper headline screaming “Police intervene after clash between JC, Mona High students”.

That Jamaica Observer story was based on a stone-throwing incident involving boys from JC and Mona High School at a bus stop on Hope Road in St Andrew – one of frequent clashes between them – which caused police to search the students for weapons.

Last week’s clash between JC and Westwood High School for the glory of Schools’ Challenge Quiz championship was the complete opposite, as the two schools demonstrated a camaraderie after the end of the competition that was both commendable and teachable.

“There were tears on both sides of the aisle as Jamaica College ended a 39-year drought to lift the Television Jamaica (TVJ) Schools’ Challenge Quiz (SCQ) defeating Westwood High School 30 – 28 in a fiercely contested final,” according to journalist Ms Karen Madden.

As “fierce” as the 2026 staging, which marked the 57th season of TVJ’s Schools’ Challenge Quiz was, it was absolutely gratifying to see how the communities of both schools dealt with the results and how they only had gracious words for the other team.

And it was indeed fierce, as Ms Madden informed us: “The opening challenge ended with JC leading 7–5, before Westwood High roared back in the speed challenge setting up a mouth-watering 28–28 deadlock heading into the nerve-wracking buzzer challenge where JC held their nerve to squeeze out a two-point win.”

JC’s Principal Mr Wayne Robinson led from the front, commending the Westwood girls for putting up a valiant fight, which he described as “a motivating force for girls”, even though conceding “Our boys have come through a real battle… I should have carried my blood pressure tablets”.

For Jamaica College, this current academic year has been nothing short of superlative and demonstrates that a school can bounce back from the lows of 2003 during a dark spell for JC, to the splendid heights of 2026.

Their Schools Challenge Quiz victory came while they were still savouring the win at the ISSA Boys and Girls Athletic Championships. Before that, the school had already claimed titles including the Under-14 and Under-16 urban schoolboy football championships.

Add to that their triumph at table tennis and lacrosse, among other sports. They just barely lost out to Excelsior on the ISSA/WATA Manning Cup title of which they were the defending champions.

We hope that other schools would have taken notice of the resurgence of Jamaica College, and endeavour to use their successes as a template for their own. It is noteworthy that the JC Old Boys have been doing their part for the glory of their alma mater.

It is clear that all schools need the consistent assistance of their past students, in order to meet the customary resource challenges, not to mention in the aftermath of disasters such as Hurricane Melissa which left immeasurable damage to schools last October 28.

In the meantime, we extend highest praise to the Schools Challenge Quiz final teams comprising from JC – Marvin Whyte (captain), Mason-Jai Edwards, Jamarli Banton and Ryhomah Muir; and from Westwood – Tanay Johnson (captain), Sheanelle Brown, Kadecia Fearon and Alison Francis.