Manning’s unconcerned with late start to preseason

With the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) daCosta Cup set to kick off on September 7, Manning’s School assistant coach Kevin Williams says his team will be ready to compete for the title despite their late start to the preseason.

While Williams was reluctant to declare Manning’s as title contenders for the upcoming season, he believes his players have the quality and the potential to challenge any team on their day.

He said the goal is to focus on the season one game at a time and see how far they can go in the competition.

“ Every competition that you enter, you enter to win it. With the quality that we have, if we can put things together and apply what we’ve been taught, I’m sure we can come out victorious at the end of the season,” Williams said.

Manning’s have yet to lay claim to the daCosta Cup title throughout the school’s history. The closest they came was in the 2021-22 season when they were whipped 5-0 in the final by Garvey Maceo High.

Williams said the team had a late start to their campaign as several of their players were competing in different competitions during the summer.

COACHING STAFF

However, he is unconcerned about the disruption as the coaching staff have been familiar with the players and their quality for the past three years.

“The preparation process for us started late. The late start is because we have a group of players that we have been associated with for a good two to three years and we know their quality and their ability,” he explained.

“So the start was all about us and when we wanted to begin the actual programme. We had them in different competitions gearing towards development for the daCosta Cup.”

Williams said Manning’s have only played a few games to date and the team continues to improve with each game they play.

During the recently concluded Ali Cole Cup at Excelsior High, Manning’s finished fourth in their group behind Dinthill Technical, Central High and Holmwood Technical.

He described their preparations as a work in progress and is confident they will find the right gear as the daCosta Cup start approaches.

“We’ll be ready in time,” he insisted. “We have only played a few preseason games so far, so it is a work in progress but we’re seeing some signs of what we’re working towards and what we hope to achieve.”

Manning’s are drawn in Zone C of the daCosta Cup where they will contest the first round against Black River High, Godfrey Stewart High, Grange Hill High and Little London High.