4 weeks ago
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VASSELL REYNOLDS, coach of defending Manning Cup champions Kingston College, and Anthony Patrick, the coach of last year’s beaten finalists, St Catherine High School, say preseason tournaments like the Yardie Sports Challenge Cup, which takes place from August 7-10, have become extremely important to their preparations for the schoolboy football season.
Reynolds pointed out that the mini preseason tournaments aid their preparations in multiple ways, and likened the tournaments to track and field development meets.
“They are very important,” Reynolds stressed.
“Just like in track and field, how you have development meets, we see these as developmental tournaments in preparation for the season. It is now left to the coaches to make a decisive plan as to who, where and which teams.
“So it is very important for us, these tournaments, and the Yardie Sports Challenge Cup is one such tournament that benefits us for the preparation phase of the (schoolboy football) competitions.
Patrick also emphasised the importance of preseason tournaments, noting that the exposure his players get from tournaments like these are priceless.
“It’s a very important one, when you look at the teams that are going to take part. It is going to be a challenging one, but it is a great boost for the youngsters to showcase their talent and show that they can play football.
“We have a couple more tournaments we will take part in, but we look forward to this Yardie Sports Challenge Cup.
The second Yardie Sports Challenge Cup, which was launched at the Summit last Wednesday, will have eight participating schools, including four schools from the inaugural tournament, Kingston College, St Catherine High, Calabar High, and Dinthill Technical, along with Charlie Smith High, Munro College, Manchester High, and York Castle.
The eight teams have been divided into two zones. Zone A comprises Kingston College, Manchester High, Charlie Smith High, and York Castle. Zone B consists of Calabar High, St Catherine High, Dinthill Technical, and Munro College.
Teams will play each other once in a round-robin format over the first two days. The matches will last 60 minutes, with 10-minute intervals.
After the first round, teams will be ranked from one to eight based on points, goal difference, and head-to-head, where necessary.
The quarter-finals are to be contested on Saturday, and teams will then face off based on ranking, with the number-one seed facing the number eight, the number two facing the number seven, third versus sixth, and fourth versus fifth.
Alumni teams of the participating schools have also been invited and will join the party at the quarter-final round, where they will be ranked similarly to their under-19 teams.
The teams that win on Saturday will advance to the semi-finals on Sunday, where they will vie for a spot in the respective finals, which will also be contested on Sunday.
Along with the championship trophies, there will be individual awards for tournament MVP, best defender, best midfielder, best goalkeeper and leading goalscorer.
English (US) ·