Garvey Maceo under no pressure to repeat

GARVEY MACEO were minutes away from losing 1-0 to McGrath in the daCosta Cup final last year, but found a late equaliser before claiming their third title via a penalty shootout.

As the team prepares to defend their title, coach Lester Hibbert – now in his fourth year at the helm – is very cautious ahead of the competition.

“We want to defend our title, but we are not putting any pressure on the players, as we will be taking things step by step and day by day,” said Hibbert.

Despite starting preparations late, he is satisfied with the team’s progress. “We started our preparation a little bit late, but we are happy with how things have gone so far despite not playing any practice matches yet,” he said.

According to Hibbert, they have lost eight players from last year’s squad but do not see this as a problem.

“We will be without eight players from last year’s squad, but this will not be a problem as we have most of the members from the 2022 under-16 team which lost to St Elizabeth Technical in the semifinal, and they will be coming with a lot of experience.”

Asked who some of the key players returning from last year’s team were, his reply was, “Wait until September and we will see.”

After losing to Kingston College in the Olivier Shield final last year, he stated that they are having a lot of psychological sessions with the boys.

“We are doing a lot of psychological sessions with the boys, as we want them to be more prepared mentally going forward. This was one of the reasons we lost our final match last year to Kingston College and we want to correct this. We want them to be more mentally prepared,” he shared.

Hibbert stated that support for the team has been very good.

“People like winners, and since winning the daCosta Cup last year, the support from the school and community has been wonderful. At our training sessions, we have a lot of people who come out to watch the guys, and this is good motivation for them,” he said.

Known as the ‘Cubanz’, the team will play in Group I, which is seen as the group of death. It includes last year’s daCosta Cup semifinalists and Champions Cup winners Glenmuir, who they defeated on penalty kicks, Ben Francis Knockout semifinalists Denbigh, Vere Technical – who recently made it to the preseason Clarendon Elite Cup final where they lost 2-0 to Glenmuir – Old Harbour High, Foga Road, Winston Jones, Bustamante, and Kemps Hill High.