Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

First-time champions Gar-vey Maceo are favoured to begin the defence of their Inter-Secondary Sports Association/Pepsi/Digicel daCosta Cup title on a winning note this afternoon at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay, when they lock horns with Zone I rival Kemps Hill, in one of three scheduled games to mark the start of the 2008 schoolboy football season.

The game, slated for 2:45 p.m., forms a part of what is expected to be a colourful opening ceremony, which will also see Manning Cup champions Jamaica College meeting Jonathan Grant in a 12:30 p.m. Zone C curtain-raiser, and many-time daCosta Cup champions Cornwall College facing St James High in Zone A, Montego Bay derby, at 4:45 p.m.

Parade

The official opening ceremony, which will see a parade of the Manning Cup and daCosta Cup participants, is slated for 12:15 p.m.

Governor General Sir Kenneth Hall is expected to declare the season open.

While Garvey Maceo is expected to make a winning start to the defence of their daCosta Cup title, the Kemps Hill team, which is returning to the competition after a one-year break, is promising to give them a run for their money as they are harbouring thoughts of advancing from the competitive Zone I this year.

"We are not at all intimidated and we will be taking it to them," said a confident Kemps Hill's coach, Alexander Francis. "We have been training since May and we believe we are ready and up to the challenge."

Coach confident

Despite losing gifted striker Ashton Bennett, the chief architect of last year's win, Garvey Maceo's coach, Jeffrey Hewitt, is quietly confident that his team will be able to repeat as champions this season because he still has over 75 per cent of the team that won both the daCosta Cup and the Ben Francis Knockout titles last year.

"We are basically rebuilding, but we still have good players that can serve us well," said Hewitt. "I am not promising anything, but we plan to give it our best shot. So, let us see where that will take us."

While Garvey Maceo will be pinning most of their hopes on Shawn Fogah, Richard Allen and Mikhail Howell, the brash Kemps Hill will be hoping to unleash the likes of Derrick Planter, Kirk Wood and Vijay Ranger with stunning effect.

The show-closing Montego Bay derby between archrivals Cornwall College and St James should be a battle royale as both teams simply hate losing to each other, and the expected pressure from their loyal fans could make the game as epic as any final.

"Our preparation has been quite good and we are basically ready to go out and perform," said pastor Hugh Solomon, the coach of the St James High team. "We plan to take it stage by stage, but our first objective is to get to the inter-zone round."

Unlike pastor Solomon, Dr Dean Weatherley, who guided Cornwall College to the title in 2001 and 2002, was quite blunt in declaring that he expects his team to at least make it into the final, arguing that he had seen the requisite signs in his preparation.

"This team is quite balanced and well prepared, and once they maintain their discipline and stay focused I am expecting them to go all the way to the final," said Dr Weatherley. "I can't remember ever putting so much work into preparing a team."

While Cornwall College will be banking on experienced campaigners such as Michael Allen, Mark Cunningham and Sean Afflick, St James should be quite robust with the likes of Allan Ottey, Nicholi Barrett, Adrian Barker and young Jason Malcolm.