The draw for the ISSA Champions Cup took place on Wednesday night at the ROK Hotel in downtown Kingston throwing together some mouthwatering matchups as the eight best schools in both the daCosta Cup and Manning Cup will go up against each other to prove which one is the best in the island.

President of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), Keith Wellington, who presided over the draw, explained the one significant change to the competition this season.

“We are back with the Champions Cup this year. I think one of the most significant change this season is that, normally we play the Champions Cup in its entirety before the Manning and daCosta Cup finals.

Wellington went on to explain that the availability of the desired fields resulted in the change as the Champions Cup is played on specific fields in the country.

“We had to do it because of issues with availability of venues, but we expect that there will be a difference in terms of Champions Cup. The teams which make the finals would maybe have played in the daCosta Cup or the Manning Cup final already and therefore that will be a difference,” he said.

“This year we will be playing the finals of the daCosta Cup and Manning Cup, before the finals of the Champions Cup.”

The president is expecting some very exciting games based on the draw conducted last night.

“We have eight teams participating, four semifinalists from the daCosta Cup, four from the Manning Cup and we think it’s an exciting matchup in terms of the schools that are involved. We have a nice blend of teams, but I think we have the eight best teams in schoolboy football this year,” he opined.

Match day one of the Champions Cup will take place at two venues; at Sabina Park, reigning champions Clarendon College will face off with first timers Mona High at 4:00pm which will be followed by the reigning Manning Cup champions going up against another first timer in Central High at 6:15pm.

Meanwhile, over at St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), Manchester High will face St. Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) in the first game at 2:00pm to be followed by a clash of the beaten finalists, as last season’s Manning Cup runners-up Jamaica College will go up against last season’s DaCosta Cup runners-up the Manning’s School at 4:15pm.

Wellington also gave the assurance that ISSA has met with the management of Sabina Park regarding security issues to ensure that there is no repeat of the incident which saw quite a few members of the St George’s College Manning Cup team be robbed of personal items on the opening day of the schoolboy football season.

“We have met a few times with them, trying to ensure that the issues we had on the opening day would not turn up again,” he assured.