St Mary Tech, Tacky Fancied To Advance
(This is the second in a four-part series premiering teams in the daCosta cup in the parishes of St Ann, St Mary and Portland, covered by the North Coast Times. Part 1 is on the Times website and Facebook Page– Editor’s Note)
St Mary Technical, Carron Hall, Wycliffe Martin, Horace Clarke, St Mary, Tacky, Annotto Bay and Iona high schools are the teams in the daCosta Cup competition for Zone I.
TACKY HIGH
The big hitters from last season for the parish were St Mary Technical High and Tacky High. Coaches for both teams say they intend to again make it from the Group to the Inter-Zone round. In fact, Tacky’s coach David Pryce says getting out of the first round is only a secondary goal. The Primary aim is to go beyond the Inter-Zone.
Mr Pryce says he has retained about a third of the team that went to the Inter-Zone round last year where they were knocked out. He says the team’s stated goal is to win the Zone thus putting them up against a runner-up team and then hoping to go on from there. (Watch these Tacky team members practice concentration and movement)
A major mover in the Tacky team is Giovanni McLean who scored five goals from the defence last season and has been coached into being a striker for Tacky this year. Manager is Jevaughn Hinds.
CARRON HALL
Their first encounter is Carron Hall and Mr Pryce told North Coast Times he doesn’t take any team lightly.
The coach at Carron Hall is Dave Miller. They have been away from the competition since COVID-19 and are jumping right back in, with purpose and ambition. The preparations have not been the best because of a lot of rain the last two weeks. But, Mr Miller says his team is not afraid of the big names. “We have our strategy. You can’t go into a game without a strategy,” he said. He believes the strongest part of their team is defence.
Captain is Nigel Powell. Their first encounter is with Tacky on Tuesday, September 12.
ST MARY TECHNICAL
Gihon Murdock is the coach of the St Mary Technical team. They made it into the Inter-Zone last year and expect nothing less. “Most definitely” was Mr Murdock’s answer to the question about whether he expects them to get to the Inter-Zone round. He says the team has lost several of the players who it was hoping would be back in the squad. Some are out because of behavioural or academic performance issues. However, he says they expect to be prepared although there were many problems earlier in the camp with the state of the field they use near Richmond Farm. (St Mary Tech team in training)
ST MARY HIGH
Watch this impressive training video of the St Mary High team.
Don’t write off St Mary High. Long-time contenders St Mary High are putting their last season’s performance behind them and expecting to do better this year. Coach Kenroy Reid says he has lost some of his players to schools in the same Zone but he’s not worried. Mr Reid says the team is showing all round stretch though the defence looks strong. He says they are in a building mode and expect to do big things.
“We expect to progress out of the round,” he said. He added that some of the team members have stepped up from the Under 16.
Keep up with the coverage of the D’Cup by checking the North Coast Times Website and Facebook Page.
