Camperdown High School Head Coach Lancelot Livingston says the key to ending Excelsior High’s nine-year reign wasn’t the rain, the penalty kicks, or individual moments of brilliance. It was due to two years of work off the field that finally gave his players the focus and belief to finish the job.

Livingston finally got to watch years of frustration give way to three calm penalties on April 17 as Camperdown beat Excelsior 3-0 on spot kicks in the ISSA/TIP Friendly Society high school girls football competition final at Wolmer’s Girls’ School.

Neither side scored in open play in the rain-soaked match.

“It was good for the girls,” Livingston said.

“Over the years we had challenges, and those things would have come and distracted the girls, in terms of their performances. But this year, to be honest, from the beginning of the season, the girls have put in the works.

“As a matter of fact, for the last two years we really put in some good effort off the field. The girls were able to do their team work and thinks like that, so they weren’t afraid to do the physically,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

That foundation, he said, made the difference when injuries had derailed past campaigns.

“Over the last couple of years, we were really struggling with injuries with some key players. That has been a challenge for us, and so this year things have fallen into place and it has paid off,” Livingston said.

The results backed it up. Camperdown lost once all season, and Livingston argued that even that opening-game defeat helped the group grow.

“The girls have performed quite well. I think they have lost only one game for the entire season and it was the very first game of the competition. To me, is not that they played badly, it is just that sometimes you played a game, you missed your opportunities, and the other team got maybe one or two chances and scored, and that is it. To be honest, the girls didn’t give up. Some people would just drop them head, but the girls looked at what went wrong and they try to get it right in the other game,” he explained.

Livingston said that mentality held in the final, despite it being the first time the squad had played in heavy rain.

“Going into the finals, we knew they had a chance if we went out there focused. They girls went out there, they were focused, and they didn’t give up. That game rain fell for most of the game, and that was the very first time we were playing in rain,” he noted.

Looking ahead to next year’s competition, Livingston is preparing for a reset as several players are graduating. He isn’t putting pressure on the team to repeat.

“There will be always a challenge when you are defending your title. Hopefully we get the mindset right at the beginning. We will be losing a couple of players as usually because they will be graduating. So we are going to have to reorganise ourselves and see how best we can perform. I am not going to put them under pressure, to say you have to win,” Livingston said.

He also acknowledged the advantage programmes with recruitment have.

“Some teams that you see dominating is that because they recruited players and that make the difference between the teams. When a team is able to bring players in to replace players that are leaving, it makes a difference when others have to build from scratch.

“It may take up to two to three years to build a team, and you have to start all over again. We will look at it later down and see how best we can get the players to be focused and put in the work,” Livingston concluded.