George Henry, Gleaner Writer

Head coach of Spaldings High daCosta Cup football team Courtney Jackson (wearing cap in background), along with a colleague, watches players from that school as they prepare for the upcoming schoolboy football season. - photo by George Henry

Preparations for the upcoming schoolboy football season are now in high gear at the Spaldings High School in Clarendon.

The institution, which won Zone G of the daCosta Cup competition last season and made it to the second round, kicked off its training programme approximately three weeks ago.

Head coach of the football squad, Courtney Jackson, in making an assessment of last season's performance, told The Gleaner that his objective last year was for Spaldings to make it to the final eight of the competition.

Disappointment

"We did not make it to the final eight which was our objective. It was kind of disappointing but the performance of the players was encouraging. Overall, it was not a bad season for the team," said Jackson.

"There was strength in the team all round. Every department had good quality players, but I think what happened to us last year was that the mental approach to the game was a bit low. Mentally, some of the players were weak and surprisingly, it was some of the key players," said the coach.

"For this upcoming season we have been working on our mental development. This we have been doing on and off the field. In terms of training with and without the ball and so on, we stress the mental with various exercises that we know will go a far way in improving that aspect of their game," Jackson said.

Lost players

He added: "We have about 50 per cent of those who played last year. At the end of the season last year I was hoping that it would be 75 per cent, but sometimes the schoolwork comes in and the attendance and so on, so we lost a few players, plus the school does not have a sixth form. So we had good quality players who we would have liked to be here, but they repeated 11 Grade already, so they will have to move on."

The coach, who will be in the football programme for the second straight year, said the main objective for the upcoming season is to take the team through to the inter-zone round.

"Seeing that we have retained over 50 percent of the players from last season we are hoping to make it to the inter-zone round and from there anything can happen. However, this is a two-year programme where we are hoping to do the best by the 2008 season. But for 2007 we will be giving of our best," noted Jackson.

Since last season, the coach said players have been involved in Under-15 and -16 competitions and have been in training since March of this year. He added that Spaldings High won the Clarendon Under-15 competition and players from that competition will be selected for this year's daCosta Cup.

"We also have players who participated in various competitions, like the Manchester Major League and the Clarendon Major League, so they have been involved in the game, trying to gain experience," the coach pointed out.<