Schoolboy football coaches want greater care paid to U16, U14 competitions

FOOTBALL COACHES at the under-14 and under-16 schoolboy level are not happy with the level of investment put into the sport, especially in comparison to the hugely popular Manning and daCosta Cup competitions, which highlight under-19 talent.

The ISSA Mighty Malt Under-16 and Burger King Under-14 competitions culminated with all-island finals on Tuesday after rural and urban competitions involving 93 schools from the former and 42 from the latter had been completed in December.

Andrew Edwards, under-14 coach of Manchester High School, says though he is happy that the competition gives the youngsters the opportunity to play, he believes the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) puts more effort into the daCosta and Manning Cup competitions to the detriment of the more junior competition.

“I don’t think that ISSA is very invested in the junior competitions in football. As early as June-July, you have a clear picture of what is happening with the daCosta Cup, Manning Cup, Champions Cup, etcetera. In October, you still don’t know what is happening with the under-14 or under-16,” said Edwards.

The U16 and U14 competitions begin in October.

“When it starts, you play Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Thursday, Monday or Wednesday, or Thursday again. There is very little time between games,” Edwards told The Gleaner.

Manchester, who were first-time finalists, were squeezed out of the rural title by Glenmuir, with the lone goal in the game coming late.

ALMOST ZERO COVERAGE

“Most significant for me is how they treat the fixtures and the timing of it. The media coverage for junior football is almost zero, and I believe it is something that can be done better,” said Edwards.

“The fixtures come out very late and it is all over the place. You have a schedule for today at 1 p.m. and then you get a call at 9 a.m. that the game is at 11 or not being played again. However, this is not a knock against the current administration. This has been happening since I was going to school.”

Kevin Williams, coach of The Manning’s School under-16s, said based on ISSA’s time frame to get things done, more needs to be put in place for the boys.

“We tend to have too many games in a week, and it can be a burden on the young men, whether under-14 or under-U16. I know they have a time frame to work with, but I think it is too much work. If they have a time frame to work with, it means they have to put other things in place to make it more accommodating for these boys,” Williams said.

Manning’s are back-to-back champions of the rural under-16 competition. They advanced to the all-island final but faced a rampant St Andrew Technical High School and lost 7-0.

Williams also reasoned that the senior competition has games twice per week versus the junior competition’s three games per week, which can also affect the juniors’ class time.

“When they are trying to meet their time frame, they tend to stack and pack too many games in one week, so there is no recovery time for the boys. Education comes first, and these games are not played on weekends. For a child to be missing school for three days out of the week pending travelling for games back and forth, I think it is too much.”

Meanwhile, ISSA president Keith Wellington said though a discussion could be had about how to address issues raised by coaches, some competitions would take priority over others.

“In this case, the senior competition always takes priority over the junior competition. What I know is that we have a very packed schedule that is ISSA on its own. We wait until the first round of the daCosta Cup and Manning Cup is played to play the junior competition because schools don’t have endless amounts of resources,” Wellington said.

“One, in terms of facilities, you can’t play two, three, or four competitions at the same time. Two, the coaches themselves are the same coaches for Manning Cup or daCosta Cup and they don’t want the scheduling to be on the same day as an under-14 or under-16,” Wellington added while addressing the organisation of the competitions.

“It is something that we have to give and take in terms of how the competition is organised.”