‘I’m the normal one’ says Bernard as he hunts Premier League title
Ludlow Bernard will be hunting his third football title of 2022 when he takes Harbour View into the final of the Jamaica Premier League against Dunbeholden at Sabina Park starting at 6:00 pm on Sunday.
Bernard led his alma mater Kingston College to two schoolboy football titles earlier this year, winning the Manning Cup and the Olivier Shield before calling it quits to focus on his club, Harbour View.
Now fully focused on club football, even as some schoolboy football coaches are getting into full preparation mode for the start of the next season, Bernard is on the brink of history and could become the first coach to win the top schoolboy football titles and the Premier League title in the same year.
Speaking at the press conference, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, on what he has achieved at schoolboy and club level, Bernard insisted that it wasn’t something special about him that has made it all possible.
“It’s just naturally me. Whenever I set about these kinds of tasks, it’s very deliberate what I do. As I was saying to someone before, nothing for me is a quick fix. I am probably blessed being at Harbour View football club because I have been allowed to operate and make a lot of mistakes. So, I am a product of a trial-and-error situation and I think it has evolved me into somebody who has patience and the temperament to facilitate development,” he explained.
Bernard says it has been a patience game both at the schoolboy level and the club level.
“Of course, the goals are set and fortunately for me, the goals have arrived on time. So, what I would have achieved at Wolmer’s and Kingston College, happens over time. Similarly at Harbour View, and all things being equal on Sunday evening, we will be champions. That
would have been the epitome of some very good work that would have taken place and had its benefits from about 2018-2019 upon the departure of one of my prodigies, Ricardo Gardner.”
“So, that’s my style, nothing special about it. I’m the normal one,” he said to laughs from those in attendance at the press conference.
Harbour View have Nicholas Hamilton to thank for being in today’s final after he came off the bench in both legs of the semifinal to score and pilot the Stars of the East into the championship match. However, Bernard insisted that he would not be tempted to start the striker today.
“That is one temptation that I won’t yield to. Anything that we plan to do on Sunday will be properly thought out. As a matter of fact, I am not even thinking in that direction right now. I know a lot of persons get emotional over it, but I think that is up for discussion between myself and the coaching staff. We will decide on that and clearly, I have my opponent beside me, so I really don’t want to give away that,” he said to more laughter.
Bernard will be hunting his first premier league title as a head coach at Harbour View.