Patient ‘Waite’ for Wolmer’s

Wolmer’s Boys’ School Manning Cup head coach Jerome Waite said his priority is a long-term development programme as he leads out a fairly young outfit into this season’s competition.

Waite explained this year will be the start of a transitional period where Wolmer’s will see a change in the team personnel and a talented pool of athletes moving up from the U16 competition.

“The number of talented youngsters from the under-14 and under-16 is really good. The long-term development plan will be more effective in the years to come,” he explained.

“What we have now is players coming from the Colts level that are still going through the learning process and will be gaining experience from this season.”

He is confident schoolboy football success is on the horizon for the Heroes Circle-based school.

He pointed to last season’s successes of the u14 and u16 teams as proof of their ability to challenge for titles.

Wolmer’s were beaten finalists in the under-16 competition while the under-14 team walked home with urban and all-island honours.

“Our long-term development will bear fruit in the near future,” Waite said.

“It will change in the future based on the talent pool. Last season we won the all-island under-14 and the talent pool was amazing. We lost the Colts final to Jamaica College and that also speaks volumes.”

This season, Waite said the goal will be to see how competitive his inexperienced team can prove to be against the competition’s title contenders.

He believes once the team gets past the first round, then the possibility of a title charge will grow with each game they play.

“To coach at Wolmer’s is never easy. It is one of the traditional schools that expect you to do well. This year, one of the main objectives is to get the team out of the first round and see how far we can reach going forwards.”

A major issue that has stunted his preparations, however, is the fact Wolmer’s are without a field to call their own.

Waite explained that work was being done on the school’s field to create a quality surface, leaving the team to use the Wolmer’s Girls’ facilities to host their training sessions.

“It has not been our best start this season. We have our fair problems and one of the things is that we’re working on our field so that we can have a quality field for next season and thereon. We have been training using the Wolmer’s Girls’ school field presently, in which it never came at a better time.”

Wolmer’s will kick off their Manning Cup campaign in Group E along with Denham Town, Edith Dalton James, St Jago, St Mary’s College, and Tivoli Gardens.