Student-athletes who have been relocated from Hydel High to Cumberland High will be free to compete in sports competitions under the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) umbrella as soon as September without any sanctions, the Jamaica Observer has been told.

Hydel High, which was based in Ferry, St Catherine, opened its doors in 1993 and has become a powerhouse in girls’ track and field, winning the ISSA Girls’ Athletics Championships in 2023 and 2025 and producing a long list of outstanding performers. The school also has a burgeoning football programme, having won the ISSA/Digicel Walker Cup competition in 2018 and achieved semi-final and quarter-final placings in the Manning Cup in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

Keith Wellington, who was re-elected president of ISSA last week to serve a fourth consecutive term, says because of the special circumstances, student-athletes will be free to compete for Cumberland as soon as the school year starts in September.

GraceKennedy Group CEO Don Wehby presents the Girls’ championship trophy to Hydel High School Captain Oneika McAnnuff as her teammates celebrate their first-ever victory in the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Championship at the National Stadium in St Andrew in 2023. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

He said, however, if student-athletes from Hydel High choose to go to any other high school other than Cumberland, they would be treated as “transfers” and will be part of quotas.

The Ministry of Education confirmed this week that Hydel High School will be closing its doors, and students and teachers would merge with Cumberland, which Minister of Education Dr Dana Morris Dixon said was underused and had the capacity to accept the students from Hydel High. The privately operated Hydel High had been facing financial challenges that contributed to the decision to merge with Cumberland.

Wellington, who spoke to the Observer over the weekend before the merger was confirmed, said he had not heard anything, but there was a procedure that would be followed.

The Cumberland High School in Portmore, St Catherine

“Based on what I have heard and what is being proposed, the suggestion would be that the students who are currently enrolled at Hydel, those students, along with the staff, so it’s not just the students, all the students and staff at Hydel are to be enrolled and engaged at another institution,” he said. “So based on, again, what I’m hearing, the ministry is making arrangements for all its resources to move from the physical space it is now at Ferry to another campus.”

The students’ sports eligibility would not be affected, he said.

Hydel High’s Zavien Bernard competes in the Class 2 long jump during the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium on Tuesday, March 24. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

“So as far as we are concerned, the students would still hold all the privileges as if they were still students at Hydel, although they would be enrolled on the register for another school, they would then be allowed to participate immediately for that school that the arrangement has been made by the ministry.”

The St Elizabeth Technical principal said, however, that should any students choose not to attend Cumberland, they would forfeit all the privileges.

“If they choose to go to another institution, now that’s a different, that’s a different thing, because then they will be transferring away from where they were placed.”