FORMER CHAMPIONS Jamaica College will be among the teams in action today when the 10th staging of the ISSA Champions Cup competition kicks off at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in Montego Bay.
In a doubleheader, second-time qualifiers Ocho Rios High School will face first-time qualifiers St Catherine High at 4:00 p.m. before perennial contenders Jamaica College tackle second-time qualifiers McGrath High School at 6:15 p.m.
Ocho Rios’s latest quest for silverware comes after booking their first daCosta Cup semi-final appearance last week, becoming the only St Ann team to ever do so.
Veron Peterkin, coach of Ocho Rios, said his charges are excited about the encounter.
“We have been preparing ever since preseason, so this is why we are in the semi-finals of the daCosta Cup. We have to just continue with the momentum when we play a tough cookie like St Catherine. We played them a couple times in preseason, and they are a good and well-coached team,” Peterkin said.
“Our plan is simple. We need to win. Players become overzealous or a bit nervous, so we have a system in place that will help to keep them focused on what is important,” he added.
Ocho Rios play a St Catherine team, which is creating some history of its own.
Anthony Patrick, coach of St Catherine, even as he noted that this was the first time he or the school was playing in the Champions Cup, they were not going to be overawed.
“It is nothing new for them being on this stage. We are just going out there to play and give our best, and I am hopeful our best will be good enough. Preparations are going great so far. If you look at us this season, we are one of the teams that conceded the least amount of goals. We have been playing well and lost only one game, so it speaks volumes on how preparations are going. The boys are in tune, inclined, and ready for the task at hand,” Patrick said.
JC seem to have another gear to go this season, turning up the quality and intensity when and where they need to, as Tivoli found out in the final game of the Manning Cup quarterfinal round last week.
While JC can count themselves favourites, McGrath are no pushovers.
The daCosta Cup semi-finalists did not have the smoothest road to the the final four, only making it courtesy of goal difference ahead of St Elizabeth Technical High School, but their 4-0 whipping of Frome Technical to create that advantage suggests that they have the quality to hurt.
Today’s games
Ocho Rios vs St Catherine at Montego Bay Sports Complex (4:00 p.m.)
Jamaica College vs McGrath at Montego Bay Sports Complex (6:15 p.m.)