DEBBIE-ANN Fletcher, captain of the Queen's School, collecting the winners' trophy for the Captain's Bakery schoolgirls football competition from the company's managing director Captain Horace Burrell.
THE schoolgirls football competition could soon fall under the banner of the Inter-Secondary School Sports Association (ISSA) if Captain Horace Burrell has his way.
Burrell, president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) who also doubles up as sponsor of the competition through his Captain's Bakery, said on Thursday that negotiation are to begin soon with that view in mind.
"I have given instructions to the (JFF) general secretary (Horace Reid) to meet with ISSA to get schoolgirls football under ISSA's banner," Burrell told the audience at presentation ceremony for the winners of this year's competition.
"It is about time," continued Burrell on the competition which like volleyball, basketball and table tennis are not currently under ISSA's control. Women's football, Burrell said, was the future and he believes everything should be done to ensure that it realises its potential.
According to Burrell his admiration for the female version of the sport deepened when he attended the Women's World Cup in the United States where he witnessed the joy and passion of the competitors and felt then that "Jamaica had to be there one day".
"I am sure that with the programme that the JFF has, many of you will have the opportunity to play in the US and around the world," Burrell added.
Burrell also echoed a wish of ISSA secretary Freddie Green imploring the girls to study hard, be disciplined and to apply themselves.
Never one to miss out on an opportunity to sell his ideas Burrell spoke of the merits of his company's sponsorship of the competition. From that he said his company reaped rich rewards. With that point of departure he took a much travelled route of urging other business interests to get with the programme of sponsoring sports.
Following that logically Burrell trumpeted the national football team (male) announcing that the programme was alive and well and that it was only a matter of time before things got in full swing. He announced that two companies, Captain's Bakery and Empire Supermarket, would be joining the adopt-a-player programme soon.
Topping the list of awardees were winners the Queen's School captained by central midfielder Debbie-Ann Fletcher. They collected a cheque for $100,000 and a plaque, second-placed Excelsior $50,000 and plaque, St Jago received $20,000 and a plaque for third place while defending champions Bridgeport took home $15,000 and a plaque for fourth.
Each player on the first to third-placed teams also received medals.
In the individual category Tivoli Gardens' Yanique Salmon collected the award for the top goalscorer after netting 43 goals for the season despite her team not reaching the semi-finals. Tamika Drummond of the Queen's School was the top goalkeeper while Excelsior's Simone Forbes was the most valuable player.
