NEW coach, new season, similar expectations and familiar pressure, as Jermaine Miller leads Kingston College (KC) into the schoolboy football season, promising to take it one game at a time.

Kingston College replaced title-winning coach Vassell Reynolds, elevating Under-16 coach Miller to the Under-19s as they look to regain the urban area Manning Cup and all-island Olivier Shield titles they last won in 2024.

Last season KC dropped out of the Manning Cup in the second round, their worst performance for some time. It led to the school parting ways with the very successful Reynolds.

Miller knows the task at hand as he prepares a KC unit hunting its 18th title. He inherited a team loaded with promise, having retained 18 players from last season, the majority on whom were on the fringes in the last campaign.

Kingston College players train at Cloverly Park, North Street, in Kingston on Wednesday. (Photos: Naphtali Junior)

“Last year, the team didn’t advance past the second round. This year, we start at the same stage, so the expectations are to compete, give of our best in every game, and hopefully that will get us past the second round,” Miller told the Jamaica Observer.

“The preparations have been good. I think the players have been working hard and smart while showing a lot of enthusiasm,” he noted.

KC have played eight preseason games so far, winning four, losing three and drawing once.

Kingston College players warm up during training at Cloverly Park on Wednesday.

“At Kingston College, only your best is good enough, so with the stature of this institution, the quality of the programme and players, we are always expected to do well. However, for my technical staff and I, we know too well that looking too far can be dangerous, so the focus is to take it one game at a time,” Miller explained.

KC have retained top scorer Deshawn Byfield and Shareef Ricketts, both of whom are expected to lead the charge once again. And with the inclusion of players from a very good Under-16 team that reached the final last season, KC are expected to be one of the top teams battling for honours in the Under-19 competitions.

“The team has been responding very well and the relationship has been really good. I am the new Manning Cup coach, but I am not new to this group of players. In fact, there are only two players in the entire squad that I have never coached before, so there’s a lot of familiarity,” Miller noted.

KC, one of the seeded teams have been given a bye into the second round. They are paired with perennial rivals St George’s College and St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) in Group C. The group will also include Tivoli Gardens High, the second-placed team from Zone C, and third-placed team from Zone D.

Kingston College footballers practise at Cloverly Park on Wednesday.

“I think the new format will allow all match-ups to be more competitive and so it will bring more excitement to the competition. I was always of the opinion that the big schools should always play each other and more often so I like this format,” said Miller.

“I just thought the second-round games should have been home and away to give the teams more games,” he added.

KC are the third most successful school in the history of the Manning Cup with 17 titles behind St George’s College with 21 and Jamaica College on 28.

After a 32-year drought, KC have won three titles in the last eight years, winning in 2018, 2021 and 2024.

Miller is no stranger to winning titles, having done so at a more junior level.

“Success is relative. However, as it relates to titles, I have won titles at the U-14 level as head coach and title at the U-19 level as assistant coach. I’ve also just led the Kingston College U-16 team to the final of the last competition where we lost 1-2,” Miller pointed out.

Now the man fully in charge of the Under-19s, Miller will be under scrutiny as he leads an institution that not only demands victories but requires attractive football. All eyes will be on Miller to deliver.

In their last practise game on Wednesday, KC threw down the gauntlett defeating daCosta Cup champions St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) 6-0 with a rotational team that lost 0-4 to premier league outfit Racing United in the morning.