2 weeks ago
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Kemar Ricketts, head coach of Treasure Beach FC, said while they are still surveying the damage inflicted on the club and its members, they have been left devastated in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.
Treasure Beach, the only Jamaica Premier League (JPL) club based in St Elizabeth, suffered the full might of Hurricane Melissa as it made landfall in the parish.
With reports of terrifying storm surges and hours of relentless rain and wind, Ricketts said the club and the surrounding communities of Treasure Beach and Black River have been destroyed.
“We’re completely devastated and the community, in extension, has been destroyed,” Ricketts told The Gleaner.
“As you know, Black River and Treasure Beach have been badly affected. Water is at waist height down at the dorm at the moment, so we have really been hit heavily.”
“We’re in a remote area where there is not a lot of public transportation, so some of our players have to stay on dorms. To do that, you have to have a good supply of food, which we get from the closest town, which is Black River, which now, makes it more difficult.”
Ricketts said the damage to the club has not been limited to just infrastructure, as several players and coaches, particularly those based in western Jamaica, have been severely impacted.
He has been struggling to contact several members of the club as a result of communication issues, but, from those he has spoken with, it paints a dire picture.
A number of his players, assistant coaches and trainers have lost their possessions following the hurricane, with some left without a roof over their heads.
“I’m heading down there now to see what needs to be done for us to get back to normality. I haven’t gotten communications to some of my executive members as yet, so those are some of my concerns,” he said.
“I’ve heard from some of the players. Some have been really affected, especially the ones from Westmoreland; they have lost everything.
“My assistant coach lost his entire roof and everything, his house as well. He’s from the Lacovia area. So, some have been affected, some are good so far.”
“WE STILL HAVE LIFE”
Despite the situation, Ricketts sought to look on the positives as they are yet to report any loss of life.
He said their focus is to begin their recovery process, for both the club and the surrounding communities.
“I’m not even complaining that much, because we still have life and these things are fixable,” he said.
“Again, those things can be replaced because you have to think about how bad things could have been. I’m not a selfish person, so, right now, I’m really thinking about other persons who have next to zero at the moment.
“So my focus is really to look at the people around us and how we can help,” he added.
Ricketts said the club is looking to return to normalcy as soon as possible, but can only do so through support.
THE NEXT STEPS
He explained he has already held conversations with the JPL, who have committed to providing resources to help the club, with personnel from other JPL clubs also committed to help.
Without support, however, Ricketts fears for Treasure Beach’s immediate future.
“Without any help, I don’t think we can recover. We’re in a very, very bad spot at the moment,” he said.
“First, to even get back the players at the club to train, we’re looking at weeks before we can do that, and then again, the community is so badly damaged. I don’t see us really going forward without certain things in place.”
“Things like food or finances, we’re going to need a lot of help with that to get up and going again. We have so many things we’d need to put in place.”
Owen Hill, CEO of Professional Football Jamaica Limited said the impact of Hurricane Melissa is not just an issue for the clubs who were heavily impacted, but for the entire local community.
“When you look at Treasure Beach and when you look at Montego Bay United, those teams on the southern end and western end, those teams would have had some significant challenges with their infrastructure,” he said.
“Kingston-based teams, luckily, were spared, and most of the teams in and around the Corporate Area didn’t experience it as much as those on the western end. But, as you can imagine, it is a cooperative league, so once it affects one, it affects all.”
Treasure Beach are spending just their second-ever season in the JPL, having made their debut in 2023 before being relegated the same season.
The team needed just one year to return to top flight, as they earned promotion for the 2025/26 season.
They are the first club from St Elizabeth to play in the island’s top flight since 1980.
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