This newspaper remembers with pleasure the launch of a football academy for children in St Ann complete with an educational curriculum approved by Jamaica’s Ministry of Education in 2018.

We said then that the Mount Pleasant Academy, sited on 88 acres of land and catering at the time for 55 boys aged 11 to 15, could be a game-changer towards the eventual ‘professionalisation’ of Jamaican football.

At the time, we commended Englishman Mr Peter Gould, who owns and finances the academy as well as the professional Mount Pleasant Club (involving senior footballers), for his forward-looking initiative in twinning a school to a senior programme.

“Such academies [for football] are to be found in many other countries worldwide; however, it is a first for Jamaica, which is underdeveloped in terms of any professional approach to sport,” we said in this space back in October 2018.

We note reports that the school — which we have been told has had good results in terms of its educational and vocational curriculum — has evolved in various ways since 2018, including a partnership with York Castle High, also in St Ann. The latter, we hear, provides a sixth form programme for older boys at Mount Pleasant.

Currently, as we understand it, there are 63 boys, 11-19 years old in the Mount Pleasant Academy programme.

We suspect the sixth form partnership with York Castle dovetails well with Mr Gould’s senior programme, the seven year-old professional club, Mount Pleasant Football Academy, which brought great joy to St Ann on Sunday.

Guided by former national coach and legendary player Mr Theodore Whitmore, Mount Pleasant, in their first-ever final, defeated an impressive Cavalier Football Club 2-1 to claim the Jamaica Premier League title.

We note that 19-year-old Mr Devonte Campbell — who, we are told, came through the junior academy programme — was part of that winning team on Sunday night.

Such success is priceless for Mr Gould, whose prospects of recouping and, in time, profiting from his huge investment in Jamaica’s football must now seem much more realistic.

Profit will inevitably involve the trading of talented players to top professional clubs abroad — an aspect Mr Gould, Mr Whitmore, and other club leaders will consider carefully as they look to the Caribbean Cup and hopefully the Concacaf Champions Cup. Along with Mount Pleasant, Cavalier and third-placed Arnett Gardens FC will advance to the regional competition.

Said Mr Gould after Sunday night’s triumph: “We’ve got to strengthen…We’ll lose players, maybe three or four players, but many people want to come to the club.”

We expect that Mr Gould and company will be looking with interest at the junior academy teenagers now seeking to emulate Mr Campbell in advancing to the professional ranks.

Of critical importance is the example being set for others — including the several football youth academies which have sprung up in recent years but which lack the overarching developmental capacity of the set-up in St Ann.

We recall the dreamy 2018 comment from Mr Tony James, former president of the Jamaica Football Federation: “If we could find three more Mount Pleasants… you would be surprised to see what Jamaica’s football would do in the medium term…”

What a wonderful thought.