St Francois Girls’ aiming for clean sweep in 2012

The match which will be staged at President’s Ground, St Ann’s, along with the two other North Zone matches, and the East Zone opening round fixtures.

All six matches will commence at 3.45 pm. Despite some changes to the first team line-up, Jason Spence, who heads into his fifth season as St Francois coach, said that his ambition for the team was not only to retain the titles which were won last season but to also seal the National InterCol title.

St Francois lost 3-1 to Holy Name Convent at the beginning of last season, but all three points were subsequently awarded to St Francois, after it was revealed that Holy Name fielded an unregistered team.

From there, St Francois went on to dominate the North Zone without losing a match. The Belmont-based school then sealed the North-East InterCol title with a penalty-kick win over El Dorado East Secondary, and went all the way to the Trinidad InterCol final, where it lost 4-3 on penalty kicks to South Zone’s Vessigny Secondary, after regulation time ended 1-1.

St Francois also reached the “Big-Four” competition final but lost 2-1 to El Dorado despite a late attacking surge from its talented midfielders and forwards. The team has since lost several first team players in Shannon Archer, Dhaakira Solomon, Monique Gomez and Kelly Cooper.

And it will also have to do without the services of last season’s top scorer Diamond Small, who has taken a year off to focus on her studies.

Spence, who also leads Women’s League Football (Wolf) club North East Stars said he still believes that the school has the ability to go all the way to the National InterCol final. “Despite the loss of the several first team players, we still have some promising ones who can take the team forward.

“Some of the players from the Under-15 division will be coming in so we will give them the exposure for the coming years,” said Spence.

He added, “We continue to take it one step at a time. In order to progress as the younger players develop, they will move from the school system to the women’s league, and success at this stage is a good way to begin.”

Defender Chelsea Marie Spence, who also played for Rangers during the SSFL’s off-season, will return to captain St Francois for another year.

Midfielders Asha Jones and Astride Joseph, goalkeeper Darya Rodriguez and striker Della Joseph, all of whom had an impressive season last year, are among some of the key players set to return to the line-up.

The two other matches in the North Zone will see Providence challenging Tranquillity at St Anthony’s College Ground, Westmoorings, while St Joseph’s Convent hosts Holy Name Convent at the school’s ground in Federation Park.

The East Zone standout team of last season, El Dorado East, will face a challenge from Toco Secondary at El Dorado Ground. Arima North and St George’s College will meet, while St Augustine also hosts Bishop Anstey East at its St Augustine ground.

The two other zones, South and Tobago, which were scheduled to kick off today, have been postponed to a later date to be announced, due to the two days of “rest and reflection” called on by the T&T Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) for the nation’s teachers today and tomorrow.

Commenting on the postponement of the two zones, Spence (Jason), who is also a member of the North Zone committee said that he failed to understand why two zones are able to kick off and two others postponed, especially as the matter was an issue relating to teachers and not to football and coaches. “I don’t understand why the other zones will not be played.

There’s no difference between the North and East and the South and Tobago zones. Therefore, I don’t see how two zones are affected and two aren’t,” said Spence.

Fixtures

North Zone

 St Francois v Malick, President’s Ground, 3.45 pm
 Providence v Tranquillity, St Anthony’s Ground, 3.45 pm
 St Joseph’s Convent v Holy Name Convent, St Joseph’s Ground, 3.45 pm
 
East Zone

 El Dorado East v Toco Sec, El Dorado, 3.45 pm
 Arima North Sec v St George’s College, Arima, 3.45 pm
 St Augustine v Bishop Anstey East, St Augustine, 3.45 pm