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WALTER ALIBEY
Senior Multimedia Reporter
Midway through the 2026 Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT) Boys’ Premiership Division of the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) season, newcomer Hillview College has sacked its coach, Jeremy McMeo.
The development surprised McMeo, who told the media he was called to a meeting on Thursday with manager Nirad Tewarie, school principal Derek Bissessar, and a member of the school’s board. He claims that the verdict was handed to him within a minute of the start of the meeting, and he was also informed that his replacement is Jerwyn Balthazar, his assistant coach.
According to McMeo, the decision was made after the relevant parties determined that he had faltered in four items unrelated to the team’s on-field results this season or even throughout his four-year stint in charge.
McMeo said, “I was asked to come to a meeting to discuss team issues. I went to the meeting, and within the first 25 seconds, without any sort of specifics, I was terminated without any sort of opportunity to address what they had to say.”
McMeo said the four items listed as reasons for his termination were insubordination, disrespect, not being a team player, and because his views on the players’ welfare were not in line with the school’s.
“He (Tewarie) said that it was a decision made with a heavy heart and whatnot, but he did list four items. I was terminated with immediate effect,” McMeo said.
The separation comes despite McMeo being largely involved in implementing a successful football programme at the school over his four years with them, which saw the Hill Boys promoted to the Premiership division for the very first time this season after a successful campaign in the Championship division of the SSFL last year.
Before his ouster, McMeo’s apparent success continued, having led Hillview to ninth on the 17-team standings with 11 points from eight matches in their debut season.
That position has not come without some impressive results, including a lopsided 5-2 win over St Anthony’s College in their first game of the season and a 6-3 win over former Premiership winners Fatima College in round three. Their third win this season came via a 4-1 result over fellow debutantes Mucurapo West Secondary School in round four.
The Hill Boys have also managed to hold current league leaders St Mary’s College to a 1-1 draw in round six and former Premiership winners St Benedict’s College 1-1 in round seven.
Their only defeats this season were a narrow 4-3 loss to the then leaders, Arima North Secondary, in round two, and back-to-back losses to Speyside High (3-1) and Naparima College (2-1) in rounds eight and nine.
Quizzed on what went wrong, McMeo explained, “If you ask me, I still don’t know.”
When contacted for a comment yesterday, Tewarie stayed clear of the development, saying only that McMeo has a tremendous future ahead of him, and wished him all the very best in his future endeavours.
“But as of right now, we are very confident that coach Balthazar will be able to lead the team effectively through the rest of the season,” Tewarie said.
Hillview College will face Signal Hill Secondary today at 3:40 pm at the Bertille St Clair Ground in Signal Hill.
Meanwhile, team representative Firishta Ali Hosein admitted that the loss of their coach will impact the players but said that they remain eager to play and will find themselves.
The former coach expressed confidence that despite the developments, the team will continue to do well, particularly after the work that he and Balthazar have done.
“We have done a lot of work to get the programme from where it was to where it is. A lot of work on and off the field. We had certain goals, and we were reaching them.”
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