‘We are not afraid of anyone,’ says Edwin Allen’s Henry
Richard Henry is a man on a mission.
He wants to take the first senior schoolboy football trophy back to the hallowed halls of Edwin Allen High in Frankfield, Clarendon.
Edwin Allen High is known primarily for the exploits of their girls at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships, but Henry intends to give the school fraternity something else to cheer about this year.
He played a big role in getting his team into their first football final, scoring the first two goals in a comfortable 4-0 win over Manchester High in the ISSA Ben Francis semi-finals at STETHS Sports Complex on Tuesday.
Henry said that the mission ahead of the semifinal had been a very simple one.
“The intention, coming into this game, was to just take the three points and move on to the finals.
“I feel great knowing that I have scored two goals and give my team the lead and my teammates, brothers, help me out and score more,” he said.
Winning a trophy this season would be a good thing for everyone associated with the Edwin Allen programme, Henry admitted.
“It would be good to me, it would be good to my teammates, it would be good to my coach Tafari Burton. I want to say thanks to him to take me in hand and show me certain things that I do not know and teach me how to do my thing,” he said.
Henry says that they pay respect, in equal measure, to every team, regardless of the opponent they come up against each match.
“We don’t take any team easy. We just say to ourselves, we are going to play 11 players just like us. We are not playing the names of the schools, just 11 players and we come out and do our best,” he noted.
Having played in the first semi-final and unaware at the time who they would be playing in the final, Henry made it clear that it did not matter who they came up against.
“It doesn’t matter. We are not afraid of anyone. We are going to go home, go back to the playground and do what we have to do and then we will talk after the finals.”
Despite being the leading goal scorer in the team with 13 goals, 11 in the DaCosta Cup and two in the Ben Francis Cup, Henry says it doesn’t matter which teammate finds the back of the net in the final, as long as the team wins.
Edwin Allen, who have never won this trophy, will face seven-time champions St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) on their home turf in the final, starting at 1:00 pm.
— Dwayne Richards