The Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) has announced that it has been granted permission by the Government of Jamaica to resume high school football competition.
So by November 12 or 13 the popular DaCosta Cup and Manning Cup competitions are expected to resume after last year’s competitions were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Organizing Committee of ISSA is now busy finalizing arrangements to commence the Manning Cup and DaCosta Cup on Friday, November 12 or Saturday, November 13,” the release stated.
And ISSA President Keith Wellington continued: “We are pleased that we have been granted permission to start our schoolboy football season, it’s really a pleasure that we have been afforded this opportunity to ensure that our young student/athletes in this case, the football players, get the opportunity to return to play in the sport. It has been two years for them and I know that many of them are concerned that the opportunity, the dreams and aspirations they had about getting scholarships.”
It is expected that about 90 schools, 37 in the Urban area Manning Cup and 53 in the Rural area DaCosta Cup, have indicated their willingness to participate in this year’s edition, which will spill over into the next semester after the Christmas break.
“For the first time in recent memory, the season will be divided into two segments with the Preliminary Rounds and Quarter Finals slated to be completed before the Christmas Break and the Knock Out stages when school resumes in January,” the release explained.
However, Wellington is concerned with the availability of the Pfizer vaccination for players.
One of conditions agreed on for play is that all players, coaches and officials must be vaccinated in order to participate.
“As you know there are currently no Pfizer vaccines available but we are hoping that within another two weeks or so we hope the players, officials and coaches will get the opportunity to get at least one dose of the vaccine before the start of the competition.”
Schools set to compete have been given permission to start training.
