Jeremiah worried over William Knibb preparation

DWIGHT JEREMIAH, coach of William Knibb Memorial High, is calling this season’s preseason the worst he has had with the school he has led for the last five years.

According to Jeremiah, a number of injuries, as well as the passage of Hurricane Beryl, forced his preseason camp into a late start.

“It is probably the worst I have ever had preparing a set of boys for the schoolboy season,” Jeremiah said.

“Some people are saying that it is a level playing field because everybody is complaining that they didn’t have enough time. However, there is one other factor that people aren’t factoring in, and it is that some schools have a squad that has returning players from last year. With a short time, at least you have players who are used to your system and have chemistry,” he said.

According to Jeremiah, Knibb’s squad will have three starters from last year and mostly young players. With the short preseason, it will be more difficult, especially for the young ones who are now learning the sport.

“We couldn’t start camp. We didn’t start before Hurricane Beryl and then after, there was no electricity at the school because we had a problem with light poles falling down. We went into camp in the last week in July, which would have seen three, four weeks pass by. School is set to open next week, so we had to pretty much break camp on Monday, August 26; it was our last day at camp.”

Additionally, Jeremiah said travelling expenses for players are also problematic.

“There are some injuries you want to monitor and stay close with but you won’t have that opportunity to do so. Also, we have to focus on boys travelling to training and sometimes it is difficult because we do not have all of them at once. It becomes a money issue, so when you have a set number of boys and can set your training schedule, it will be more difficult because some days you don’t know who is going to come.”

Irwin began competing in the ISSA daCosta Cup in 1978 with former coach Leon Jackson, but have never won a title. In 2002, they lost 1-0 to many-time champions Rusea’s High School in their first and only trip to the final.

After taking over from Casman Williams in 2019, Jeremiah in the last three years he believes the team’s consistency resulted in two trips to the quarterfinals and round of 16.

Still, Jeremiah continues to be optimistic about the ability of his team to perform when the time comes.

“We are open to navigating our way through the zone system of those 10 games and strive to be one of the two teams coming out of the zone. We know it will be difficult but are hopeful. We hope to be up to speed to deal with the other aspects of the daCosta cup. Second round went back to a format that existed long ago. This is another zone again of four and two come out. Not the home-and-away tie that the winner goes through,” Jeremiah said.

Irwin will kick off their campaign in Zone D alongside Cedric Titus, Discovery Bay, Holland, Muschett, and Spot Valley high schools.