KINGSTON, Jamaica—Newly appointed technical director of Calabar High football, Kemar Ricketts, said he is grateful to be a part of a school with such history, as he hopes to build something special with the school.

“First off, let me say thanks be to God for allowing me to get another opportunity, a great opportunity of being a part of a school with history. You know, a lot of stars, a lot of sportsmen and different people would have been through this school, so it’s a pleasure to be a part of this institution. I aim to bring structure and organisation, and discipline to this institution,” he told Observer Online.

Ricketts has replaced Jermey Miller, who led the school to their first quarter-final stage of the Manning Cup and Walker Cup in decades.

Ricketts has just saved Treasure Beach FC from relegation from the Jamaica Premier League and is looking forward to the challenge at Calabar school, which has won the Manning Cup only three times, the last in 2005.

“That is something that we’re looking to do. We’re looking to build and develop a programme that can last a few years, you know, beyond the tenure I’m given. That’s the aim of it,” said Ricketts, who coached at BB Coke High for 15 years in the daCosta Cup.

“The biggest part of it, I’m here to make my work speak for itself, and that’s where it is. I cannot stand here and make any promises about silverware, but only my best is good enough, and I’ll try my best and do my best to implement ways in which we can achieve these goals,” he added.

“BB Cooke was built from the ground up, as everybody would have known. And then getting Treasure Beach back to the Premier League and then keeping them in the Premier League is a monumental achievement. And then here comes a new competition, a new environment, which I say can only speak positively and gets better as we go along.”

“It’s a wonderful feeling of being in the Corporate Area and being in the Manning Cup. It’s a competition I’ve admired for years, and the technicalities and the schools and everything. So being there and being given the chance to build on and then reconstruct some aspects of Calabar is a great feeling,” Ricketts argued.

“I just want to help the youngsters to understand their purpose and to help them to see things from a different perspective, and then to help them to believe in themselves first before anything else. That’s a huge part of what I want: to give them the confidence to express themselves on and off the pitch, and to hope that they leave the programme when their time has ended as better human beings. And that’s part of what I look to create with Calabar,” he added.