Champions XLCR view life beyond schoolboy football
Though without five key players who have matriculated to universities, Excelsior High’s football Head Coach Keon Broderick is unperturbed as his stated mission is bigger than winning just games, it’s about making better individuals.
Broderick masterminded Excelsior’s winning run last season, ending a 21-year Manning Cup drought.
“We try to balance both football and the academic part of it. Academics come first for us more than anything else,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
Academics might be on the front burner, but Excelsior were first in football last season as they dismissed perennial favourites Jamaica College 2-0 in the Manning Cup final and later defeated daCosta Cup winners St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) 2-0 to be crowned the best schoolboy football team in Jamaica.
From that all-conquering team, Excelsior lost top striker Kimarly Scott, Captain Terrence Williams, Demario Whyte, Kivann Salmon, and Shamarie Chambers — all crucial cogs in that successful run.
Jahmali Roper of Excelsior High football team works out in the gym.Photo: Garfield Robinson
“Academics come first, football comes second and so we don’t place our expectations on wins and losses alone but also how the youngsters would have matriculated from the programme. Three of the five youngsters who were in the team last year would have gone overseas to study and that is something that we want to continue within the programme. But there are no great expectations as it relates to football,” Broderick reiterated.
“It’s just for us to ensure that the quality of the programme is at such a level where it improves our players both with the academic aspect and the football aspect. I believe we can retain the title. There is quality within the team and there is expertise within the coaching staff and the management team has been doing well ever since they took over in 2024,” he pointed out.
“So we have the ability both on and off the field to retain. But as I said before, for us, we don’t measure success on wins and losses alone. It’s also about how the players matriculate and mature and grow as individuals and secondly as footballers,” said Broderick.
Excelsior High’s Kimarly Scott (#9) celebrates with supporters after victory over St Elizabeth Technical in the Olivier Shield play-off at Stadium East on January 8, 2026. Photo: Karl Mclarty
Excelsior, one of the seeded teams in this season’s Manning Cup, will get a bye into the second round. They are drawn in Group B alongside Charlie Smith High, Calabar High, St Jago High, and the winner of Zone C and the third-placed team from Zone A in the first round.
This is a group that Excelsior is expected to advance from and the Mountain View Avenue-based team is expected to run deep into this season’s schoolboy football competitions, having retained the majority of the winning team.
BRODERICK… it’s just for us to ensure that the quality of the programme is at such a level where it improves our players both with the academic aspect and the football aspect Photo: Joseph Wellington
“Preparation has been going on fairly well. I think we are working on the areas that we believe needs to work on as it relates to our weak points and we’re trying to improve even the areas that we are strong in. So preparation has been going on fairly well,” Broderick explained.
“It could have been better, but the more we move into the later stages of the summer, the better and the more the team will improve as it relates to the preparation. One of the good things about this season is that the season doesn’t start in the early stages of September, but more to the back end in early October. So, we have quite a lot of time to work on all aspects of player development — and that’s what the coaching staff is doing,” the Excelsior coach noted.
