2019 SSFL & Inter-Col Thread.

[Flex]

Hislop named SSFL ambassador for 2019.
By Andrew Gioannetti (Newsday).

FORMER T&T international goalkeeper and popular ESPN football analyst Shaka Hislop will be the face of the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) when the season begins later this year.

Hislop was revealed as the league's first ambassador, during a brief media conference, on Friday evening, at Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain. He and SSFL president William Wallace signed a pre-agreement memorandum, which is expected to be followed shortly by a final agreement once the roles and functions are agreed to by the two parties.

"...I'm delighted and honoured to to be able to play a part in T&T football and in particular with the Secondary Schools Football League, given my own history," Hislop said, noting he would be happy to work in any role asked of him.

"My playing a part was an easy a decision as I've had to make. I didn't hesitate as I understand what the league stands for and I also understand what Mr Wallace and the rest of the SSFL executive are trying to do with the league in affording opportunities for the young men and women in the game, and that opportunity does not have to come solely in the way of a professional contract or a university degree," the 2016 World Cup player said.

Wallace, meanwhile, said he could not think of a better or more suitable role-model to represent the league. "Shaka being on board just as a role model even without getting into the details is big enough for us in terms of our footballer looking up to somebody who has walked the walk. He embodies everything the SSFL stands for," Wallace said.

[Flex]

Wallace to continue as SSFL president.
By Joel Bailey (Newsday).

WILLIAM WALLACE will continue as president of the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) after the entire executive was re-elected for the period 2019-2021.

The election of people to serve as national officers took place, on Tuesday, at the SSFL’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), at the Carapichaima East Secondary School.

Phillip Fraser will remain as first vice-president, with Tevon La Rose re-elected as the second vice-president.

Gerald Elliott will continue as assistant secretary/treasurer (administration), while Laurence Seepersad stays as the assistant secretary (operations), and Azaad Khan remains as general secretary/treasurer.

The media release pointed out that the firm of Vishnu DK Musai and Company were elected as auditor(s) for the period 2019-2021.

RELATED NEWS

Wallace shares accomplishments and goals as he starts new term as SSFL president.
Wired868.com.

The following is a statement from Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) president William Wallace who was returned unopposed at the body’s AGM during the week:

It is an honour to serve, especially where our nation’s youths are the beneficiary of this service. It is a humbling feeling to be elected unopposed after one’s first term in office. The feedback that I have gotten from membership is very encouraging and the general consensus is that people are happy with the trajectory of the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL).

The League has made some strides over the last two years and I must give credit to the officers and executive members who have been extremely supportive to the initiatives and projects that were presented. After 50 years in existence we were able to set up for the first time a full time office, and for me this was a major accomplishment.

Among other things we were able to accomplish are the following:


    Create a players database;

    Launch the league’s website;

    Forge links with a major international entity in GPS;

    Set up the framework for a scholarship programme;

    Attract a sponsor for 4 of our lower divisions and another for our Form One Division;

    Make constitutional changes to minimize registration infringements;

    Introduce Match Commissioners;

    Hold a stakeholders meeting;

    Train persons through a First Responders course;

    First ‘B’ License Course ever conducted in Trinidad and Tobago;

    Conducted ‘C’ and ‘C-prep’ coaching courses;

    Started online registration;

    Introduce the North vs South classic;

    Conducted combines in Trinidad and Tobago;

    Enhance the League’s closing ceremony and the Intercol Finals;

    Weekly broadcast of League games on SportsMax;

    Sign Shaka Hislop as Ambassador of the League.

For the new term, the SSFL executive intends to:

    Launch a scholarship programme inclusive of SAT Tuition—we are embarking on a drive to get corporate Trinidad and Tobago to buy into this project;

    Launch a National Community Outreach Programme in collaboration with GPS;

    Conclude negotiations on a major uniform deal for the Premier schools—95% of the negotiations have already been concluded and we are on the verge of signing off;

    Continue on a drive to expand viewership.

The SSFL executive for the 2019-21 term is:

William Wallace (president), Phillip Fraser (vice-president), Tevon La Rose (2nd vice-president), Gerald Elliot (assistant secretary/treasurer—administration), Laurence Seepersad (assistant secretary—operations), Azaad Mohammed-Khan (general secretary/treasurer).

[asylumseeker]

Presentation College footballer going blind, Needs funds to save his sight
By Jada Loutoo, Newsday

At age 20, former Presentation College, San Fernando, goalkeeper Tyrek Jhafari James is going blind. He has been diagnosed with bilateral cataracts with reduced vision. To save his sight requires immediate surgery at a cost of $22,000 for both eyes.

Kimberley Sylvan has started a GoFundMe page to raise funds to save the sight of this young man.

Presentation College Past Pupils Association president Stephen Samlalsingh has also appealed to the public to support this cause.

He said James has represented his school at many competitions including the Secondary School Football League (SSFL) and now aspires to be a sports physiotherapist.

His dreams could be dashed if his sight is diminished, Sylvan said.

Sylvan said throughout his life James suffered with a cold in his head, which “would come and go.”

She said he always kept a menthol inhaler “in case of spur of the moment discomfort”, but believes this is what may have affected his eyesight.

She said James who is partially blind, first started complaining about the lack of vision in April 2018, but this was attributed to a blow he received while at work.

“Not knowing it was due to steroids in the inhaler he was using for such a long time, which was not listed on its label.”

She said on Wednesday he visited the Trinidad Eye Hospital where several tests were done and he was diagnosed with bilateral cataracts with reduced vision.

“As the cataract progresses James gets closer to being completely blind.

“At the moment the partial blindness affects his ability to perform his daily activities and puts his personal safety at risk. Because of this he becomes very frustrated and depressed. It is also very strenuous for him to work.

“The cost of surgery is $22,000 for both eyes and it is recommended that the operation done as soon as possible.

“So today, I ask you to donate generously to helping Tyrek to regain full use of his eyes so that he may continue towards his hopes and dreams.

“He has his entire life ahead of him and this set back has crippled his freedom, sense of safety and hope. I want him to be able to live and enjoy life to the fullest without limiting the most basic function - sight.”

In February 2015, James was selected to play with Trinidad and Tobago's National Under 17 football team in Honduras and Panama.

[Flex]

Malick past vs present football fund-raiser today.
By Jelani Beckles (Newsday).

A proliferation of former national footballers will feature toay when Malick Secondary holds a football fund-raiser past vs present game at the Morvant Recreation Ground at 5pm.

The school is aiming to raise funds for the upcoming football season and the organisers are asking people to leave a donation to assist the team. The current team will be competing in the premiership division for the 2019 Secondary Schools Football League season after earning promotion.

A Malick past all-star team will play the school's premiership team from 5 pm. The school has a rich football history as a number of TT footballers attended the school including Devorn Jorsling, Densill Theobald, Arnold Dwarika, Brent Sancho, Kerwyn "Hardest" Jemmott, Gary Glasgow and current national senior team coach Dennis Lawrence. A number of those players represented TT at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and were part of the Malick football team that dominated the Secondary Schools Football League in the 1990s.

Entertainment will be provided for children, including a bouncy castle, face painting, refreshments and drinks. The event is being organised by the Malick Past Pupils Alumni in collaboration with coach Anthony Bartholomew.

[Flex]

Malick's re-entry into SSFL top flight embraced.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

Mal­ick Sec­ondary's School's re-en­try in­to the top-flight Pre­mier Di­vi­sion of the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League has cre­at­ed more than a bug in the Mor­vant/Laven­tille com­mu­ni­ty, and among its ex-play­ers.

On Sat­ur­day last, a group of for­mer Mal­ick play­ers such as na­tion­al foot­ball coach Den­nis Lawrence, Arnold Dwari­ka, an mid­field­er/strik­er, Stoke­ly Ma­son, Ker­wyn Jem­mott, Den­sill Theobald, De­von Jorsling and Gary Glas­gow, were among many oth­ers that faced the school's cur­rent team in an ex­hi­bi­tion match at the Mor­vant Recre­ation Ground to pro­vide the school with much-need­ed as­sis­tance ahead of the SS­FL sea­son which will kick off next month.

Lawrence said, "It is fan­tas­tic for the Mor­vant/Laven­tille com­mu­ni­ty be­cause Mal­ick has been a well-known name in sec­ondary school's foot­ball ever since, so it's great to have teams like Mal­ick back in­to the In­ter­Col this year, so hope­ful­ly the boys will en­joy it and they can rep­re­sent well."

Lawrence told Guardian Me­dia Sports that from what he has seen so far, the young play­ers seem to have a good un­der­stand­ing of the game, and al­so have good ethics, and not­ed he hopes they can build on those qual­i­ties.

Dwari­ka, on the oth­er hand, said be­cause of the sit­u­a­tion with the crime in the coun­try, he em­braced the ini­tia­tive to have Mal­ick back in­to the schools league as it will im­pact the com­mu­ni­ty.

Ac­cord­ing to the for­mer Joe Pub­lic and na­tion­al play­er, "From be­ing in the dog house all the time to come up and face the big dogs in school foot­ball, I think is a great achieve­ment, and I hope that they can live up to it."

Dwari­ka re­mind­ed the young play­ers of the chal­lenges they have had as play­ers, say­ing in his time the el­e­ments were al­so there. How­ev­er, al­though he didn't be­lieve they had the best team then, they were still able to win four tro­phies in the schools league, some­thing he hopes the young play­ers can take a page from.

Dwari­ka's on­ly prayer is for his school team to avoid be­ing rel­e­gat­ed an­oth­er time.

"If they play to stay up then every­thing will come easy. There are some nice young youths there in the team, so it's just about show­ing them how to go for­ward. I think they should be a force to be reck­oned with," said Dwari­ka.

[Flex]

SSFL gets UEFA Champions League surprise.
By Narissa Fraser (Newsday).

COURTESY 2018/2019 champions Liverpool FC, the official trophy of the UEFA Champions League arrived in TT today.

The trophy was on display at the official launch for the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) this morning at Fatima College, Port of Spain.

Excited football fans were allowed to touch and take pictures with it after the event. Senior marketing manager at Malta Carib, Marsha Kalloo told the audience, "Our friends from Liverpool have heard really fantastic things about the SSFL and they loaned us their trophy to show you all."

Malta Carib is one of the official sponsors for SSFL 2019 season. Others include Fruta, Shell, Coca Cola, First Citizens Bank and Digicel/Sportsmax.

Kalloo urged the student athletes to "pursue greatness" and not only represent their schools but their homes and communities, adding that one day they might be part of a team that wins the prestigious trophy.

"Change starts right here and it starts with every one of you. We want to encourage you to pursue greatness in everything that you do. It doesn't stop at sports, but sports, especially football, is one of the best ways to shine."

[Tallman]

WATCH: The 2019 Secondary Schools Football League is all set to go

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/V-zH7M0Qv9E" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/V-zH7M0Qv9E</a>

[asylumseeker]

Please post technical staff by school, if you know who's who with certainty. Also include the junior age groups as well if you have that information. Thanks in advance.

[Flex]

SSFL attracts mega sponsorship brands.
By Gyasi Merrique (Guardian).

Pres­i­dent of the Sec­ondary Schools’ Foot­ball League, William Wal­lace, does not re­mem­ber a time in his­to­ry when as many as sev­en di­vi­sions of the com­pe­ti­tion have had spon­sor­ship.

At Tues­day's launch of the 2019 sea­son at Fa­ti­ma Col­lege on Mu­cu­rapo Road in Port-of- Spain, Wal­lace beamed as he thanked the league’s cor­po­rate part­ners for com­mit­ting to this sea­son’s com­pe­ti­tions to the tune of al­most one mil­lion dol­lars in cash and prod­uct.

Among those part­ners are First Cit­i­zens and Shell which re­tain co-spon­sor­ship sta­tus of the Pre­mier di­vi­sion; Co­ca Co­la, ti­tle spon­sors of the boys’ and girls’ In­ter­col; Fru­ta, which will spon­sor the form one com­pe­ti­tion and the newest ad­di­tion, Mal­ta Carib, com­ing on board to spon­sor five di­vi­sions. They will fund the run­ning of the un­der 14 and 16 boys’ com­pe­ti­tions, the un­der 15 girls’, as well as the boys’ and girls’ se­nior di­vi­sion.

Dig­i­cel/Sports­max will for the third year in a row, pro­duce tele­vised broad­casts of match­es week­ly in North Amer­i­ca, the UK and re­gion­al­ly, at an op­er­a­tional cost well over $1.5 mil­lion. Mean­while, in­ter­na­tion­al sports­wear man­u­fac­tur­er Jo­ma, which is the of­fi­cial spon­sor of Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­al teams, has com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing a home and away play­ing uni­form for each of the 15 Pre­mier Di­vi­sion teams as well as train­ing and trav­el­ling kits for play­ers and staff worth over 500 thou­sand dol­lars.

In a time where the sport has suf­fered for fund­ing at many lev­els, Wal­lace says that is a tes­ta­ment to the at­trac­tive­ness of the schools’ game.

“We con­tin­ue to have a prod­uct that is at­trac­tive be­cause it’s sus­tain­able. It doesn’t have the lev­el of con­fu­sion that seems to ex­ist at the top and that is one of the rea­sons why spon­sors are at­tract­ed to us.”

Wal­lace al­so not­ed that this swell in spon­sor­ship co­in­cides with the in­creased ex­po­sure of our best young tal­ent while he ac­knowl­edged that the main aim of the League is its ex­pan­sion of the class­room, on­to the field of play.

“For us, that is the most im­por­tant thing. How many per­sons play (schools’) foot­ball? Over four thou­sand every year. Three-quar­ter of more than that would not go on to play pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball in any way but they go on to be­come cit­i­zens of T&T. For us, cre­at­ing the cit­i­zen who can con­tribute pos­i­tive­ly to Trinidad and To­ba­go is our ma­jor mis­sion.”

Mean­while, the com­pe­ti­tion be­gins in earnest on Sat­ur­day with the Dig­i­cel Cup, to be played be­tween last year’s un­de­feat­ed tre­ble win­ners, Na­pari­ma Col­lege and.

League run­ners-up Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege San Fer­nan­do. That match will take place from 4:30 pm at Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um in Mara­bel­la and will be pre­ced­ed by an over-40 clas­sic match be­tween past Na­pari­ma and Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege play­ers from 3:30 pm.

RELATED NEWS

SSFL lands Joma kit sponsorship.
By Narissa Fraser (Newsday).

FOR the first time, the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) will have a sponsored kit.

SSFL president William Wallace made the announcement yesterday morning, at the official launch of the 2019 season, at Fatima College, Port of Spain.

An elated Wallace said, “For the first time in 55 years, the SSFL has landed a uniform. Joma, through its local distributors Sportway, supplied all 15 Premier Division teams with two playing kits (home and away), training kits for players and staff, travel kits for players and staff, bibs, etc.”

Joma also sponsors the TT national team and international clubs such as Swansea City AFC and Villarreal FC.

Wallace added while he has seen a recent increase in match turnout, the committee wants to see full stadiums “at all times,” this season. He began his tenure as president in 2017.

“For us to get satisfied and say we’re pleased with anything–then we are not a dynamic organisation. There is always room for improvement.”

This year’s sponsors are Coca Cola, Digicel/SportsMax, First Citizens Bank, Fruta, Malta Carib and Shell.

Angus Eve, Naparima College head coach, said the league assists with the development of student athletes and can “take them forward.” Naparima College were the winners of the 2018 Premier Division (Boys) after an impressive season. The team maintained an unbeaten run for all 14 games, topping the table with 34 points. Presentation College, San Fernando placed second with 33 points.

“The league can develop players, it can develop student athletes to take them forward because we developing holistic young people to not just to be athletes but to be a part of society because we know what is going on today with the youths in our society. We as coaches have to play an important role in that part,” Eve said.

Fatima College, Bishop’s High School, Tobago and Valencia Secondary School were relegated to the Second Division.

Eve joked, “Thanks for the use of the ground and the (auditorium) facility today because that’s the only involvement you might get in the Premier Division this year.”

The season kicks off on Saturday when Presentation College, San Fernando face the 2018 champions Naparima College in the Digicel Cup at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium.

[Flex]

That time again - SSFL 2019 is here!
By Colin Murray (Guardian).

Ar­guably the most ex­cit­ing, pul­sat­ing and sup­port­ed foot­ball league in T&T - the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball league (SS­FL) kicks off this Sat­ur­day with the Dig­i­cel Cup be­tween the two top schools from last year - south­ern ri­vals Na­pari­ma Col­lege against Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege.

Na­pari­ma dra­mat­i­cal­ly won the league last year when, on the fi­nal day, they vis­it­ed Trin­i­ty Mo­ka while Pres jour­neyed to Bourg to take on the tough San Juan North Sec­ondary. Naps need­ed to win and hoped that their ri­vals slipped up in what turned out to be a su­perb ex­hi­bi­tion of goal­keep­ing by the San Juan cus­to­di­an, Em­manuel John. John sin­gle-hand­ed­ly thwart­ed at­tack af­ter at­tack from the Pres boys; the game end­ed 1-1 while Naps hand­ed the Mo­ka boys a 2-0 de­feat there­by win­ning the ti­tle by just one point point.

Be­fore the fi­nal day start­ed, San Juan al­so har­boured hopes of tak­ing the ti­tle. As re­mote as it seemed, they need­ed to win by five clear goals and al­so hoped that Na­pari­ma lost. Un­for­tu­nate­ly for them, they didn't achieve their goal and fin­ished 3rd. Steven Spiel­berg could not have writ­ten a bet­ter script for a thrilling 2018 end­ing.

Can we ex­pect sim­i­lar type dra­ma for the 2019 sea­son? One nev­er knows what to ex­pect from the SS­FL from year to year. Once again, I think the league is go­ing to be hot­ly con­test­ed right down to the wire. It's al­ways a chal­lenge to pre­dict who will come out on top, as se­nior play­ers leave school and have to be re­placed by young­sters. It, there­fore, be­comes eas­i­er af­ter a cou­ple of rounds to see the teams play with their new squads and then pre­dict who will be the top schools.

The de­fend­ing champs Na­pari­ma played sec­ond fid­dle for long pe­ri­ods last year and I ex­pect them to be in strik­ing dis­tance again this year. They are well-coached and the school has a win­ning men­tal­i­ty so Na­pari­ma will have to be the team to beat.

Pre­sen­ta­tion is very much mir­rored to Naps and they will be tough to beat. They lost out on both the In­ter­col and the League last year and so they will want to put that right. Once some of their ju­nior play­ers step up, they may be even more dif­fi­cult to de­feat.

San Juan North could be a fly in the oint­ment. They pos­sess a good men­tal­i­ty but when the go­ing gets tough, they must show the right met­tle to fight it out as they have con­sis­tent­ly failed to show that. This year, if they can get some more goals then who knows? The ti­tle could leave South.

Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary was a sur­pris­ing fourth but nev­er looked like clos­ing the gap on the front three. They played some tough, ef­fec­tive foot­ball with­out look­ing pret­ty and were dif­fi­cult to beat at home. If they keep it sim­ple and de­fend well, they could again be in the top five but it will be a tough ask.

St Bene­dict's Col­lege had a mixed bag last year and I don't ex­pect much from them this year. On their day, they can hold their own against the 'big boys' but they are far too in­con­sis­tent to be out­right ti­tle con­tenders.

Queen's Roy­al Col­lege (QRC) looked good in parts. They were well or­gan­ised at the back and on­ly Naps con­ced­ed few­er goals than them. How­ev­er, they found dif­fi­cul­ty in putting the ball in their op­po­nents' net. If they can solve that, they can spring some sur­pris­es.

East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary lan­guished around the rel­e­ga­tion zone for most of the sea­son but a string of wins to the end lift­ed them to fin­ish mid-ta­ble. They are a con­fi­dent bunch, who I ex­pect to learn from last year and come bet­ter pre­pared for the 2019 sea­son.

Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka has al­ways been a dif­fi­cult team to beat at home. But they played too many or­di­nary games with no fight last year and fin­ished in 8th po­si­tion - bet­ter than I an­tic­i­pat­ed.

St Mary's Col­lege was far bet­ter than their 9th po­si­tion sug­gests. They were far too de­fen­sive and nev­er put their op­po­nents un­der se­vere pres­sure. They were a tal­ent­ed side whom I ex­pect will do bet­ter this year if they held on to a cou­ple of their se­nior play­ers.

St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary de­fend­ed poor­ly but had some good at­tack­ing play­ers. But if you leak goals at the back, you will lose more games than you win and they may very well strug­gle again this year.

Trin­i­ty Col­lege East just could not score goals and in the end, that was their down­fall. They were well or­gan­ised at the back but couldn't breach the op­po­nents' goal and so end­ed up draw­ing half of their games. If they get a goalscor­er for 2019, they could well be a spoil­er.

St An­tho­ny's Col­lege was a huge dis­ap­point­ment. They were ex­treme­ly tal­ent­ed but lacked prop­er di­rec­tion and so gave away sil­ly goals and lost match­es they should have won. I ex­pect a huge turn­around from them and they could be up there with the best this sea­son.

Mean­while, It is of­ten dif­fi­cult to as­sess pro­mot­ed teams. Mal­ick Sec­ondary is back and that's great for the SS­FL. I ex­pect them to be tough to beat and re­al fight­ers. Pleas­antville Sec­ondary is al­so back and would play a good open at­tack­ing style of foot­ball but have to be tight at the back. Fi­nal­ly, Spey­side Sec­ondary is rep­re­sent­ing the sis­ter isle. I hope they give a bet­ter ac­count of them­selves than both Bish­ops and Sig­nal Hill. I have been ex­treme­ly dis­ap­point­ed in what the schools in To­ba­go have been giv­ing us in the SS­FL - to­tal­ly lack­ing in ba­sics and very dis­or­gan­ised.

Let's look for­ward to a great sea­son full of goals and ex­cite­ment. Good luck to all the schools!


Ed­i­tor's note

The views ex­pressed in this col­umn are sole­ly those of the writer and do not re­flect the views of any or­gan­i­sa­tion of which he is a stake­hold­er.

[Flex]

Malick Secondary ready for SSFL premiership return.
By Narissa Fraser (Newsday).

Head coach: ‘I feel great’

AFTER more than a decade, Malick Secondary School will return to the Premier Division of the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) and head coach Anthony Bartholomew says they are “ready to work hard.”

Bartholomew began coaching the team in 2016. Speaking with Newsday yesterday afternoon, he said returning them to the premiership was his top priority from day one.

He said, “I feel good–I feel great, with emphasis on where we came from to where we are now. We always said we will make it back and we have three years to do it and it will happen. That’s the faith we were pushing all the time.”

He said despite Malick being a “small school,” he believes they can achieve a lot. He described the team’s growth over the past three years as “tremendous” and “excellent.” He said training has been going well, and while he knows the journey will be difficult, the team will be focusing on maintaining a high spot in the table.

While they were the champions of the 2018 North Zone Championship Division, they are better known for their dominance in SSFL during the 1980s and 1990s. Several national players attended the school, including current national senior team coach Dennis Lawrence, Devorn Jorsling, Arnold Dwarika, Brent Sancho, Kerwyn “Hardest” Jemmott, Gary Glasgow and Densill Theobald.

Theobald told Newsday he believes it is a great accomplishment for both the school and the community of San Juan.

“Besides the performance of the team, we have to give coach Anthony Bartholomew a lot of respect and admiration because of what he did. I would just love for him to succeed this coming season and to let people know the incredible work and job he has been doing–not only this season but for the past three years.”

He said Bartholomew has been the main person assisting with raising funds for the team, which he finds commendable. The school’s most recent fundraiser was on August 3 which was a match between its past all-star team and the current team.

Theobald said, “My heart goes out to him and I really wish him and the team all the success. I know it’s going to be difficult but I believe they have what it takes. Once the boys believe in themselves, they could really do some miracles this season.”

Malick is one of three teams promoted to the premiership last year, alongside Pleasantville Secondary School and Speyside High School from Tobago.

Speyside head coach Kerry Lynch, who has been coaching since 2009, told Newsday, “I am very proud, of course, of the achievement but I am looking forward to hard work for the season coming up.”

This will be the school’s third appearance in the premiership. They previously competed in 2016 and 2017.

Pleasantville will be returning after three years. They were demoted to the Championship Division in 2016 after finishing 14th in the premiership. Head coach Kyle Small told Newsday the team is ready.

Small said, “It was a great feeling for me, knowing the struggles we went through for the past few years. I think the boys worked hard and they played (according) to plan.

“The training has been good so far; it was going as scheduled. The numbers are good. It have a bit of competitiveness in the camp seeing that we getting boys challenging for positions and not being laid back and thinking that their position is secured.”

The Pleasantville girls team also had a successful 2018 season as they won the South Zone and National Intercol competitions, and the SSFL Big Five.

The teams demoted last season were Valencia Secondary School, Fatima College and Bishop’s High School Tobago.

The 2019 season was officially launched Tuesday morning in Port of Spain. It kicks off on Saturday when Presentation College, San Fernando face the 2018 champions Naparima College in the Digicel Cup at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium.

[Flex]

Naps edge Pres Sando in Digicel Cup.
T&T Newsday Reports.

NAPARIMA College took home the first piece of silverware in the 2019 Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) season with a 5-4 win, via kicks from the penalty spot, over rivals Presentation College, San Fernando for the Digicel Cup.

Both teams were locked at 1-1 after regulation time at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella yesterday.

Presentation got first blood when Jaiye Sheppard was brought down in the box in the first minute and a penalty was awardedd. Adica Ash knocked home the spot-kick giving 'the Lions' the early advantage.

However, Naparima netted the equalising goal ten minutes later.

Presentation dominated possession but could not capitalise on the many chances that they had. Naps had to rely on trying to get the ball in transition but Presentation were quick to stop any chance at a counter-attack.

Ash’s penalty that deflected off the bar was the only miss of the shoot-out.

The two teams will begin their SSFL league journeys on Wednesday. Naparima will host St Mary’s College at Lewis Street Ground in San Fernando, while Presentation College travel to Moka to face off against Trinity College Moka.

[Flex]

Champs Naparima hosts CIC.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

Reign­ing cham­pi­on team Na­pari­ma Col­lege will be­gin the de­fence of its ti­tles, the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion, South Zone In­ter­col and the Na­tion­al In­ter­col ti­tle, on Wednes­day when the team hosts St Mary's Col­lege at its home ground at Lewis Street, San Fer­nan­do from 3:30 pm.

Un­der coach An­gus Eve, a for­mer na­tion­al stand­out, the team has be­come a dom­i­nant force among its peers in the schools, and on Sat­ur­day, the boys that sport the Blue and white strips, sent a stern warn­ing to all op­po­nents by claim­ing the open­ing Dig­i­cel Cup by beat­ing arch-ri­vals Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege of San Fer­nan­do 5-4 in a penal­ty shoot-out, af­ter a 1-1 stale­mate.

This sea­son the south­ern­ers will be mi­nus three of the play­ers from their team that played last year, and they may fan­cy their chances against a re­build­ing CIC out­fit. The 'Saints' as they are pop­u­lar­ly called have al­so made sev­er­al key changes to their coach­ing staff, bring­ing in for­mer na­tion­al de­fen­sive mid­field­er Ker­ry Jamer­son as their head coach. But it would be an up­hill task for Jamer­son's men who will be re­quired to be firm in the back­line to cope with the Naps lethal at­tack­ing force.

At Spey­side in To­ba­go, the home team will be up against Mal­ick Sec­ondary, a team that has been out of the top flight schools foot­ball for some years, due main­ly to changes in the school sys­tem, a Dean at the school said last year. How­ev­er, the team's re­turn was met with huge ex­cite­ment by past and present play­ers, mem­bers of the school and mem­bers of the Mor­vant/Laven­tille com­mu­ni­ty, for whom the school has been a sense of pride.

Mean­while, San Juan North Sec­ondary, last year's East Zone In­ter­col win­ners and Na­tion­al In­ter­col run­ner-up, will have a date with Pleas­antville Sec­ondary which is al­so mak­ing a re­turn to the SS­FL top flight, while Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege (San Fer­nan­do) will vis­it Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka at the team's home ground in Mar­aval. All match­es be­gin at 3:30 pm. This year the League will fea­ture a record num­ber of spon­sors, as Dig­i­cel, First Cit­i­zens Bank and Shell T&T (Pre­mier Di­vi­sion spon­sors), Co­ca-Co­la (In­ter­col spon­sor), Mal­ta Carib and spon­sor/broad­cast­er Sports­Max, all join­ing to mak­er the League the fastest-ris­ing high school foot­ball com­pe­ti­tion in the Caribbean.

Wednesday's SS­FL Match­es

San Juan North Sec­ondary - Pleas­antville Sec­ondary @San Juan

St. Bene­dict’s Col­lege - Trin­i­ty East @Man­nie Ramjohn

Spey­side Sec­ondary - Mal­ick Sec­ondary @Spey­side

Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka - Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege @Trin­i­ty Mo­ka

East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary - Queens Roy­al Col­lege @Fa­ti­ma

St. Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary - St. An­tho­ny’s Col­lege @St Au­gus­tine

Na­pari­ma Col­lege - St. Mary’s Col­lege @ Lewis Street

Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary – BYE

[Flex]

Naps whip 'Saints' in opener 3-0.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

Na­pari­ma Col­lege got a brace from Ezekiel Kezar which got the de­fence of their ti­tles, off to a per­fect start with a com­pre­hen­sive 3-0 vic­to­ry over St Mary's Col­lege at their Lewis Street, San Fer­nan­do ground on Wednes­day.

How­ev­er, they will have to wait un­til Mon­day to find out if their re­sult will stand, af­ter a breach in the use of the of­fi­cial Jo­ma uni­form, ap­peared to have been al­tered by the use of their per­son­al spon­sor Tiger Tank, which ap­peared bold on the front of their jer­seys in­stead of key spon­sor Dig­i­cel.

But with the play­ers ig­no­rant of what was tak­ing place at the ad­min­is­tra­tive lev­el, Seon Ship­p­ley drilled in a third goal to se­cure his team's first win of the sea­son, much to the de­light of their fans.

East Mu­crapo and Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege (San Fer­nan­do) were the biggest win­ners on the night, both ham­mer­ing Queen's Roy­al Col­lege (QRC) and Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka 6-0 re­spec­tive­ly. At Fa­ti­ma Col­lege Ground in Mu­cu­rapo, Malachai Ce­les­tine led the way for East Mu­cu­rapo with a hat-trick of goals in the 15th, 33rd and 41st min­utes, while Zion Mc Leod added a dou­ble in the 81st and the third minute in time added on.

Ja­heim Patrick round­ed off the scor­ing for the dom­i­nant East Mu­cu­rapo out­fit with his item, in the 22nd minute.

Mean­while, Mal­ick re­turned to the top flight schools league with a com­pre­hen­sive 5-0 tri­umph over Spey­side in To­ba­go. Ma­made Guer­ra led the way with a hat-trick and Zion Car­pette and Jabari Williams got the oth­er goals in their win­ning ef­fort.

YES­TER­DAY'S RE­SULTS

Naps- 3 (Ezekiel Ke­sar 2, Seon Ship­p­ley) vs CIC- 0

East Mu­cu­rapo 6 (Malachai Ce­les­tine 15th, 33rd, 41st) vs QRC -0

Mal­ick 5 (Ma­made Guer­ra 3, Zion Car­pette, Jabari Williams) vs Spey­side- 0

Pres (San Fer­nan­do) 6 vs Trin­i­ty Mo­ka 0

St Au­gus­tine 1 vs St An­tho­ny's Col­lege 1

Trin­i­ty Col­lege East 2 vs St Bene­dict's Col­lege 1

Pleas­antville Sec 1 vs San Juan 0

Standings

P  W  D  L  F  A  Pts
East Mu­cu­rapo Secondary  1  1  0  0  6  0  3
Presentation College San Fernando  1  1  0  0  6  0  3
Malick Secondary  1  1  0  0  5  0  3
Naparima College   1  1  0  0  3  0  3
Trin­i­ty Col­lege East  1  1  0  0  2  1  3
Pleas­antville Secondary  1  1  0  0  1  0  3
St An­tho­ny's Col­lege  1  0  1  0  1  1  1
St Au­gus­tine Secondary  1  0  1  0  1  1  1
San Juan North  1  0  0  1  0  1  0
St Bene­dict's Col­lege  1  0  0  1  1  2  0
St Mary's College  1  0  0  1  0  3  0
Spey­side Secondary  1  0  0  1  0  5  0
Trin­i­ty College Mo­ka  1  0  0  1  0  6  0
Queens Royal College  1  0  0  1  0  6  0
Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary  0  0  0  0  0  0  0

RELATED NEWS

TV broadcast stops as Naps breach uniform rules.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

A ma­jor breach in the agree­ment by the 2018 Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) triple crown cham­pi­ons Na­pari­ma Col­lege, has led to the can­cel­la­tion of the broad­cast of its open­ing match of the sea­son on Wednes­day.

The open­ing match be­tween 'Naps', as they are com­mon­ly called, and St Mary's Col­lege was sched­uled to be broad­cast­ed on Sports­max, the Caribbean sports ca­ble net­work at Lewis Street, San Fer­nan­do, but the LIVE broad­cast was pulled mo­ments be­fore the start, af­ter Guardian Me­dia Sports learnt that Na­pari­ma al­tered the kits of the of­fi­cial uni­form provider for the SS­FL- Jo­ma, in a move to pro­mote their spon­sors.

It is un­der­stood that Na­pari­ma had se­cured the spon­sor­ship of Tiger Tank and sought to en­graved their lo­go on the of­fi­cial Jo­ma uni­forms pro­vid­ed to them by the SS­FL, de­spite an agree­ment that Jo­ma is to be the of­fi­cial kit of the tour­na­ment.

This new de­vel­op­ment has caused out­raged among mem­bers of the schools fra­ter­ni­ty Guardian Me­dia learnt, since the south­ern­ers re­ceived a warn­ing from SS­FL of­fi­cials for us­ing the al­tered kits at last Sat­ur­day's open­ing Dig­i­cel School Cup be­tween them and Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege of San Fer­nan­do, which they won on penal­ties 5-4 at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um in Mara­bel­la.

SS­FL of­fi­cials were im­me­di­ate­ly in­to an ex­ec­u­tive meet­ing to­day to de­cide on the way for­ward, af­ter threats by Sports­max to not do any match­es played by Na­pari­ma Col­lege. The ex­ec­u­tive of the SS­FL will de­cide by Mon­day.

On Mon­day, Sha­ka His­lop, the SS­FL's am­bas­sador was among those dis­ap­point­ed by the move of the south­ern school, say­ing "I am dis­ap­point­ed by the ac­tions of Naps through­out. I felt that their ac­tions were not on­ly self-serv­ing, but were in­tend­ed to not just con­fus­ing, but to de­ceive. The en­tire league is go­ing to suf­fer for it, and not just the pre­mier di­vi­sion of the SS­FL, but every­thing that comes fur­ther down, all the younger age groups are al­so go­ing to face the ef­fects of, in my mind, what was a very poor­ly per­ceived, thought-out de­ci­sion by a sin­gle school."

Soon af­ter Williams Wal­lace, the SS­FL pres­i­dent al­so wad­ed in on the de­ci­sion of Na­pari­ma, say­ing by next Mon­day it will be de­ter­mined what the next step will be.

Wal­lace who was in­ter­viewed on the Dig­i­cel-owned Sports­max af­ter the match yes­ter­day said the mat­ter was dis­cussed among the Cham­pi­onship and Pre­mier Di­vi­sion schools at the ex­ec­u­tive and gen­er­al coun­cil lev­els, but Na­pari­ma dis­agreed with it.

"At the end of the day a vote was tak­en and 25 mem­bers vot­ed for the po­si­tion, as brought forth by the ex­ec­u­tive, one per­son vot­ed against and there were three ab­sten­tions. The con­sti­tu­tion clear­ly states that all gen­er­al coun­cil de­ci­sions are fi­nal, and it can on­ly be over­ruled by the same gen­er­al coun­cil, or by our AGM. So when we left that meet­ing we felt that all the arm of the or­ga­ni­za­tion, and the process that we fol­lowed and every­thing, was all well. Then we heard that Na­pari­ma may not fol­low the po­si­tion tak­en by the gen­er­al coun­cil. I thought it was just ru­moured, but dur­ing yes­ter­day, I re­al­ize the ru­mours were get­ting more and more, and I de­cid­ed to reach out to the prin­ci­pal of Na­pari­ma. I sent a let­ter in­di­cat­ing the process that was tak­en, and it was con­sti­tu­tion­al, and it was based on the con­tract by Dig­i­cel etc, but there was no re­sponse to that."

Wednes­day's match be­tween the teams was al­lowed to be played but the de­ci­sion of the ex­ec­u­tive by Mon­day will de­ter­mine the fate of the south­ern champs.

Ef­forts to con­tact Na­pari­ma's team man­ag­er Per­cy Sam­lals­ingh were un­suc­cess­ful.

[Flex]

Mucurapo hit Royalians for six in SSFL opener.
By Joel Bailey (Newsday).

EAST MUCURAPO began their season, in the 2019 Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Premier Division, with an emphatic 6-0 rout of QRC this afternoon, in a first-round encounter, at the Fatima Ground, Mucurapo.

Malachi Celestine scored a hat-trick, Zion McLeod notched a pair and Jaheim Patrick got the other item for the hosts.

Celestine opened his account in the 15th minute when he slotted a right-footed shot past the "Royalians" goalkeeper Christon Mannette, after good work on the right flank by right-back Daniel Lake.

Mucurapo’s goalie Jamale Blackman made a pair of saves in the 21st, to deny Veron Aqui and Nathaniel James. Those stops by Blackman proved decisive as Mucurapo cleared the ball from the back, produced a counter-attack and Patrick completed the move with a goal, to the right of Mannette.

Celestine netted his second, and Mucurapo’s third, in the 33rd, as the QRC defence was caught napping.

And Celestine secured his hat-trick eight minutes later, as he made a run past two defenders and drilled a left-footed shot to the left of Mannette.

QRC, coached by Nigel Grovesnor, are fielding a revamped team this season.

They had a couple of opportunities to reduce the deficit – in the 45th, Blackman produced a decisive save from Jude-Anthony Johnson’s volley and, two minutes into the second half, Jahiem Granderson’s deflected shot crashed off the post.

The Dale Saunders-coached Mucurapo squad took things easy until the 81st minute, when McLeod got his name on the scoresheet.

McLeod raced on to a pass from Daniel David and directed his left-footed shot to the left of an outstretched Mannette.

And, in the last play of the match, McLeod took control of a ball in the penalty box and sent a deflected left-footed drive over the reach of the QRC goalie.

Naparima started their title defence with a 3-0 victory over St Mary’s at Lewis Street, San Fernando. Ezekiel Kesar netted a double and Seon Shippley got the other for the Angus Eve-coached Naps.

In related news, the Naps-St Mary’s game, which was advertised as the feature game on the cable network Sportsmax, was not aired due to a sponsorship issue.

The Naps players donned uniforms with branding of their title sponsors Tiger Tanks Limited even though, at last week’s launch, the SSFL announced that all Premier Division teams will be using Joma jerseys with the logo of official sponsors Digicel.

Round Two matches will be staged on Saturday.

Other Results – MALICK (5) vs SPEYSIDE (0); NAPARIMA (3) vs ST MARY’S (0); PLEASANTVILLE (1) vs SAN JUAN NORTH (0); PRESENTATION SAN FERNANDO (6) vs TRINITY MOKA (0); ST AUGUSTINE (1) vs ST ANTHONY’S (1); TRINITY EAST (2) vs ST BENEDICT’S (1).

[asylumseeker]

A poor move by whoever conceived and endorsed the decision taken by Naparima and even more onerous with respect to the alleged deception. Nonetheless, I sense that what took place ultimately will constitute a beneficial step in the growing pains that are part of the destination of increased sophistication of football in T&T.

It is particularly regrettable that Naparima does not understand the commercial arena and consequences that are implied and actionable by the presence of a broadcast partner and televised matches and its responsibility as a constituent of those commercial relationships.

Also, on the face of it, despite the GC vote,  the SSFL directorate surely has now been fully sensitized to having comprehensive anticipatory policy protocols (in writing) that speak directly to impermissible conduct in the advertising and sponsorship space.

Under one conceivable regime,  a ball need not have been kicked in this match. Will say less on that as we await the SSFL's determination of what happens next.

That stated, many leagues have comprehensive written policy addressed to this area. The location and size of logos on shirts is also specifically provided for, depending on the category and nature of commercial relationship associated with a sponsor. This is an area that also governs player conduct and so while it seems educating teams as to their obligations is obvious ... educating celebrating players may also be something to think of for down the road (inappropriate messaging or promotion of products that bear no formal commercial relationship with the league), especially since TV is part of the mix.

[Rastaman]

I stand to be corrected but I believe this was part of the rules when we took part in the league last year.

[Flex]

Naps, St Benedict's apologise for uniform breach.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

Na­pari­ma and St Bene­dict's Col­leges could es­cape with a mere slap on the wrist, for their parts in breach­ing an agree­ment be­tween the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) and its spon­sors, par­tic­u­lar­ly its main spon­sor Dig­i­cel, for the 2019 sea­son.

How­ev­er, any school found guilty of breach­es of rules in the fu­ture will be im­me­di­ate­ly sus­pend­ed.

On Wednes­day the de­ci­sion by Naps to wear uni­forms sport­ing its per­son­al spon­sor Tiger Tanks ahead of the main spon­sor of the SS­FL Dig­i­cel for a match against St Mary's Col­lege, caused Sports­Max, the Caribbean sports ca­ble tele­vi­sion providers, to not ho­n­our a com­mit­ment to broad­cast the match LIVE from Naps grounds at Lewis Street, San Fer­nan­do.

And St Bene­dict's Col­lege, which was down to face Trin­i­ty Col­lege East at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, al­so al­tered the Jo­ma uni­forms that were agreed up­on, to be used dur­ing the sea­son.

How­ev­er, a re­lease by the ex­ec­u­tive of the schools league stat­ed yes­ter­day that the prin­ci­pals of both schools- Michael Dowlat (Na­pari­ma Col­lege) and Gre­go­ry Quan (St Bene­dict's) of­fered apolo­gies at a meet­ing yes­ter­day, which they were sat­is­fied with.

As such, it said the ex­ec­u­tive will rec­om­mend that no ac­tion be tak­en against the south­ern schools, al­though the fi­nal de­ci­sion lies square­ly in the hands of the SS­FL's gen­er­al coun­cil when the meet­ing is called on Mon­day.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease on Thurs­day - "The Ex­ec­u­tive of the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) led by its Pres­i­dent William Wal­lace held a meet­ing to­day at its head of­fice at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um to dis­cuss the mat­ter in­volv­ing Pre­mier Di­vi­sion schools Na­pari­ma Col­lege and St Bene­dict’s Col­lege as it re­lates to breach of spon­sor­ship rules specif­i­cal­ly brand­ing on play­ing shirts.

The SS­FL mem­bers held dis­cus­sions via a con­fer­ence call with the prin­ci­pals of Na­pari­ma Col­lege and St Bene­dict’s Col­lege Dr Michael Dowlath and Gre­go­ry Quan Kep re­spec­tive­ly.

Both prin­ci­pals is­sued an un­re­served apol­o­gy dur­ing the con­fer­ence call for their ac­tion on Wednes­day and have agreed to com­ply with all rules and reg­u­la­tions of the League go­ing for­ward.

They have al­so agreed to is­sue a pub­lic apol­o­gy to the League, Part­ners and all Stake­hold­ers on Mon­day.

Mean­while, Dig­i­cel al­so is­sued a re­lease on Thurs­day which reads: "On the back of a breach in brand­ing guide­lines set by the SS­FL by Na­pari­ma - re­gret­tably Sports­Max was forced to pull the broad­cast of the game be­tween Na­pari­ma Col­lege and St. Mary's Col­lege. While we re­alise that this is dis­ap­point­ing to fans of School­boy Foot­ball, it's im­por­tant to point out that we take our re­spon­si­bil­i­ties to the SS­FL and to its spon­sor­ship part­ners very se­ri­ous­ly and take great pains to en­sure full com­pli­ance. We would like to thank view­ers and sports fans for their un­der­stand­ing in this mat­ter."

The SS­FL Ex­ec­u­tive al­so agreed to rec­om­mend to the Gen­er­al Coun­cil that no ac­tion be tak­en against the two schools but any school that breach­es these rules in the fu­ture will be im­me­di­ate­ly sus­pend­ed. How­ev­er, the fi­nal de­ci­sion will be made when the Gen­er­al Coun­cil meets on Mon­day.

The SS­FL and its part­ners now look for­ward to an in­ci­dent-free sea­son of com­pet­i­tive foot­ball and Fair Play for 2019."

RELATED NEWS

Naps, Benedict’s apologise for sponsorship breach.
By Joel Bailey (Newsday).

We will comply

THE principals of Naparima College and St Benedict’s College have both issued apologies to the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) executive over breach of sponsorship rules, specifically branding on player shirts.

Both schools caused the ire of the SSFL after fielding uniforms with the logo of school sponsors Tiger Tanks Limited instead of the new Joma uniform with title sponsors Digicel.

In Wednesday’s opening round of the 2019 Premier Division, Naparima played to a 3-0 win over St Mary’s at Lewis Street, San Fernando. However, one of the SSFL sponsors, regional sports cable channel SportsMax, cancelled its feed shortly after the kick-off.

St Benedict’s were beaten 2-1 by Trinity East in their contest at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella.

The SSFL executive, led by president William Wallace, held a meeting at its office, located at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, to discuss Wednesday’s incidents.

The SSFL members also had discussions, via a conference call, with Naps principal Dr Michael Dowlath and St Benedict’s principal Gregory Quan Kep.

According to a SSFL media release, “Both principals issued an unreserved apology during the conference call for their (teams’) action on Wednesday, and have agreed to comply with all the rules and regulations of the League going forward.

“They have also agreed to issue a public apology to the League, partners and all stakeholders on Monday,” the media release continued.

The SSFL executive will make a recommendation to its general council “that no action be taken against the two schools.”

However, according to the media release, “any school that breaches these rules in the future will be immediately suspended.”

The general council is expected to make a final decision on that matter on Monday.

Former national football team goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, who is also the 2019 SSFL Ambassador, said during an interview on CNC3 yesterday, “This agreement (with Digicel and SportsMax) dates back to the signing of SportsMax and SSFL taking up the league and putting it on air. (SportsMax) is now four years into that agreement.

“SportsMax felt that they were taking a chance on the league that nobody else did, and they wanted to protect that investment, in making sure they got full exposure with their sponsorship and agreement.”

Hislop said, “For Naparima to go ahead and do as they did show a brazenness that I think is unbecoming in sports, a level of malintent that I don’t think bodes well for the league.”

[asylumseeker]

A notable thing in this situation is that it involved prospective sponsorship on a magnitude that escapes professional football.

Also, the rules should preclude a sponsor from having multiple commercial relationships (of the sort discussed) within the same division.

And since branding is a trending topic ... let me ask this friendly question: why are there no corporate logos on the SSFL site? Don't the commercial partners want a presence there? Should they not occupy that space?

[Flex]

Naps, East Mucurapo battle in SSFL.
By Jelani Beckles (Newsday).

DEFENDING champions Naparima will face the high-flying East Mucurapo at Fatima Ground in Mucurapo, when round two of the Shell/First Citizens Premier Division Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) kicks off at 3.30 pm, today.

Both teams started the season with convincing victories in round one, on Wednesday. Naparima eased past St Mary's 3-0 at their home ground at Lewis Street in San Fernando to send a strong warning to the rest of the league.

East Mucurapo could not ask for a better start, crushing their North Zone rivals QRC 6-0.

Malachi Celestine was on top of his game scoring a hat-trick, Zion McLeod got a brace and Jaheim Patrick got the other goal for East Mucurapo.

Mucurapo manager Ryan Joseph said his team has the same mindset for all matches. "We approach every game the same way. We don't have any divergence or anything like that. Whether it be Naps, Pres or any team we approach it the same way."

Discussing Celestine's effort, Joseph said, "He had a good game, but there is still room for improvement so hopefully we will work on that during the course of the year."

Joseph said he wants a stronger performance as a team both defensively and attacking.

The consistent Presentation San Fernando and Malick also got off to brilliant starts in round one. Presentation defeated Trinity Moka 6-0 and promoted Malick trounced Speyside 5-0.

Today, Malick play Trinity at the latter's ground in Moka and Presentation will battle Carapichaima East at Carapichaima.

In other matches, St Anthony's welcome Speyside at St Anthony's ground in Westmoorings, QRC will travel to South to face Pleasantville, Trinity East will tackle St Augustine in Trincity and St Mary's come up against St Benedict's at St Mary's Ground in St Clair.

San Juan North will be on a bye today.

[Flex]

Mucurapo, Caps frustrate powerhouse teams.
By Jelani Beckles (Newsday).

Malick take SSFL lead…

EAST Mucurapo Secondary held defending champions Naparima College to a draw and Carapichaima East Secondary prevailed with a victory over the consistent Presentation College, San Fernando, when round two matches in the Shell/First Citizens Premier Division Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) were held, yesterday.

East Mucurapo, coming off a 6-0 victory over Queen’s Royal College (QRC) in round one, drew 2-2 with Naparima, at the Fatima College Ground, in Mucurapo. Zion McLeod gave East Mucurapo the lead in the 19th minute and almost immediately Jaheim Patrick doubled his team’s advantage in the 20th minute.

Naparima did not take long to respond as Ezekiel Kesar cut Mucurapo’s lead in half in the 26th minute, before Isa Bramble equalised in the 30th minute. The goals dried up in the second half as both teams failed to find the back of the net.

Carapichaima East defeated Presentation College San Fernando 2-1. Malik Robinson gave Carapichaima the lead in the 41st minute, an advantage they held onto until half-time. Carapichaima’s team talk seemed to inspire the players, as Resean Britto made it 2-0 for the home team in the 49th minute. The Central team seemed to be heading for a 2-0 win, but Jaiye Sheppard made the Carapichaima fans a bit tense with an 87th minute free kick, but the Caps players held their nerves to prevail with the 2-1 victory.

In other matches, QRC bounced back after its tough 6-0 loss in round one against East Mucurapo to defeat Pleasantville Secondary 4-2 in Pleasantville. St Benedict’s College made the journey to Port of Spain and got past St Mary’s College 4-2 at the latter’s school ground in St Clair.

St Anthony’s College were relentless against Speyside Secondary getting past the Tobago boys 7-1. In other results, Malick Secondary are the only team to have a perfect record after a 2-1 victory over Trinity College Moka and Trinity College East battled to a 2-2 draw with St Augustine Secondary. San Juan North Secondary were on a bye.

Round three will be played on Wednesday at 3.30 pm.

[Tallman]

Naps, Benedict’s each fined $500 for sponsorship breach
By Joel Bailey (T&T Newsday)

NAPARIMA College and St Benedict's College were each fined $500 by the General Council of the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) for sponsorship breaches which occurred last week.

Both schools fielded jerseys with the logo of their sponsors Tiger Tanks Limited, instead of one of the SSFL sponsors Digicel, for their respective Premier Division First Round matches against St Mary's College and Trinity College East.

The General Council had a meeting this morning at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva where they "unanimously accepted the verbal and written apologies from Naparima College and St Benedict's College."

In a media release, the SSFL said, "Notwithstanding the apologies preferred by (both schools), after extensive discussions, the General Council cautioned, censored and imposed a fine of $500 each on the two schools."

The League will be preparing sponsorship/branding proposals to their sponsors, including Digicel, SportsMax, Shell and First Citizens, "after consultations with all schools which shall be presented for discussion on December 29."

[Mad Scorpion a/k/a Big Bo$$]

$500?!!

[asylumseeker]

$500?!!

Dahis ah rap on de lil finger, not ah slap on de wrist.

[Flex]

Carpette, Guerra give Malick early SSFL lead.
By Nigel Simon (Guardian).

Zion Car­pette and Ma­made Guer­ra were both on tar­get for the sec­ond straight match as Mal­ick Sec­ondary de­feat­ed Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka 2-1 to take an ear­ly lead in the 15-team 2019 Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League Pre­mier Di­vi­sion, Mo­ka, Mar­aval, on Sat­urday.

Car­pette fired in the open­er for Mal­ick as ear­ly as the fifth minute be­fore Guer­ra. The scor­er of a hat-trick in for­mer pow­er­house Mal­ick’s 5-0 open­ing day tri­umph over Spey­side Sec­ondary in To­ba­go on Wednes­day dou­bled the ad­van­tage in the 19th.

Trin­i­ty Mo­ka man­aged to pull a goal back but in the end, Mal­ick held on for the vic­to­ry to move to max­i­mum six points from two match­es, two points ahead of East Mu­cu­rapo, de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Na­pari­ma Col­lege, St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege and Trin­i­ty Col­lege East. Mean­while, Cara­pichaima East, Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege of San Fer­nan­do, St Bene­dict’s Col­lege, Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege and Pleas­antville Sec­ondary are all on three points each.

At Fa­ti­ma Col­lege Ground, Mu­cu­rapo Road, the vis­it­ing Na­pari­ma had to bat­tle their way back from a 0-2 down to earn a 2-2 draw with East Mu­cu­rapo.

East Mu­cu­rapo, com­ing off a 6-0 maul­ing of QRC took a 2-0 cush­ion when Zion Mc Leod and Ja­heim Patrick net­ted in quick suc­ces­sion in the 19th and 20th minute re­spec­tive­ly.

How­ev­er, Na­pari­ma did not take long to re­spond and cut the deficit in half in the 26th minute cour­tesy Ezekiel Ke­sar be­fore Isa­ian Bram­ble drew them lev­el in the 30th af­ter which both teams failed to find a win­ner.

Over at St Mary’s Col­lege Ground, Ser­pen­tine Road, Akeem Ma­son was the toast of his St Bene­dict’s Col­lege team­mates with a beaver-trick in his team’s 4-2 de­feat of St Mary’s.

Ma­son fired his team 2-0 up with strikes in the 23rd and 33rd, on­ly for Ja­heim Ryan to pull one back for the “Saints” in the 36th minute to trail 2-1 at the in­ter­val.

Sev­en min­utes af­ter the restart Ab­dul Hy­po­lite drew the host lev­el, but Ma­son was not done yet, tor­ment­ing the “Saints” and added an­oth­er brace in the 59th and 89th to earn his team all three points.

At Morne Co­coa Road, West­moor­ings Kai Phillip banged in a hat-trick to lead St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege to a re­sound­ing 7-1 spank­ing of Spey­side.

Phillip got his goals in the eighth, 15th and 60th min­utes while Kahim Thomas (3rd & 12th) and Jean-Heim Mc Fee (49th & 51st) added braces for the “Tigers”.

At QRC Ground, Nathaniel James scored twice and Nathaniel Brown and Ronal­do Mullings one each for the Roy­alians in their 4-2 beat­ing of Pleas­antville Sec­ondary.

In yes­ter­day’s two oth­er match­es, Cara­pichaima East held off Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege 2-1 at home while Trin­i­ty Col­lege East need­ed two late penal­ties from Omario Ma­habir to earn a 2-2 draw with St Au­gus­tine who got a dou­ble from Tyrese Spicer as well. Match­es will re­sume on Wednes­day.

Results

QRC 4 (Nathaniel James 2, Nathaniel Brown, Ronal­do Mullings) v PLEAS­ANTVILLE 2 (Dil­lon Year­wood, Sher­win An­drews)

EAST MU­CU­RAPO 2 (Zion Mc Leod 19th, Ja­heim Patrick 20th) v NA­PARI­MA 2 (Ezekiel Ke­sar 26th, Isa­iah Bram­ble 30th)

ST AN­THO­NY’S 7 (Kai Phillip 8th, 15th, 60th, Kahim Thomas 3rd, 12th, Jean-Heim Mc Fee 49th, 51st) v SPEY­SIDE 1 (Adriel George 21st)

CARA­PICHAIMA EAST 2 (Ma­lik Robin­son, Rasean Brit­to) v PRE­SEN­TA­TION 1 (Jaiye Shep­pard 76th)

MAL­ICK 2 (Zion Car­pette 5th, Ma­made Guer­ra 19th) v TRIN­I­TY (MO­KA) 1 (Temes­gn Tez­era 81st)

ST BENE­DICT’S 4 (Akeem Ma­son 23rd, 33rd, 59th, 89th) v CIC 2 (Ja­heim Ryan 36th, Ab­dul Hy­po­lite 52nd)

TRIN­I­TY EAST 2 (Omario Ma­habir 2 pens) v ST AU­GUS­TINE 2 (Tyrese Spicer 2)

Up­com­ing Match­es (All kick off at 3.30 pm)

Wednes­day, Sep­tem­ber 18:

Cara­pichaima East vs East Mu­cu­rapo, Cara­pichaima

Trin­i­ty Col­lege East vs Mal­ick, Trin­i­ty East

Spey­side vs San Juan North, Spey­side

QRC vs St Au­gus­tine, QRC Ground, St Clair

Na­pari­ma Col­lege vs St Bene­dict’s Col­lege, Lewis St, San Fer­nan­do

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege vs St Mary’s Col­lege, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la

Pleas­antville vs Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka, Pleas­antville

[Flex]

QRC humbles 'Gustin' 3-1 at home.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

A dis­ci­plined but dogged dis­play from Queen's Roy­al Col­lege (QRC) guid­ed them to their sec­ond win in the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion of the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) on Wednes­day, beat­ing St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary 3-1 at their home Ground in St Clair, Port-of-Spain.

A wor­ried QRC coach Nigel Groves­nor, be­fore the match, said his ma­jor con­cern was the ex­treme tal­ent of for­mer St Mary's Col­lege winger Tyrese Spicer, who made the move to the 'Green Ma­chine', as St Au­gus­tine is com­mon­ly called, with his fa­ther Trevor Spicer, who was an as­sis­tant coach at CIC last year.

How­ev­er, his fears were dis­pelled af­ter the open­ing 10 min­utes as Spicer's surg­ing runs down the flanks were ham­pered by dis­ci­plined de­fen­sive work which was quick­ly con­vert­ed in­to at­tacks.

But Spicer did get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to put his team in the lead from a nice­ly thread­ed ball through the Roy­alians de­fence on the right side in the 7th minute, but on his un­favoured right foot, he hit a weak shot that did not trou­ble Ju­maane Mc Neil in the QRC goal.

Lat­er the Roy­alians were lift­ed by a goal from Nathaniel James in the 12th minute that gave them an ear­ly sight of three points. The diminu­tive strik­er was fed a ball from the cen­tre of the park, and af­ter a mo­ment of trick­ery, he un­leashed a pow­er­ful grounder that seeped be­low the grasp of Ajahri Mur­rien in the St Au­gus­tine goal.

How­ev­er, the cheers of the QRC sup­port­ers sub­sided fol­low­ing an­oth­er build-up from the left side in the 19th minute. This time Spicer cen­tred from the left, and Ker­ry Headley's sting­ing dri­ve was par­ried in­to the path of Jardel John to fired in­to an emp­ty net.

St Au­gus­tine should have tak­en ad­van­tage in the 22nd min­utes. Mur­rien was forced in­to a save from a Ri­val­do Pa­tron's long-range ef­fort, which bounced nice­ly for John, but he drove it against the cross­bar with the goal at his mer­cy.

But this on­ly ap­peared to have an­gered a bat­tling QRC, who fired in two more goals in the half for a 3-1 ad­van­tage at the in­ter­val.

James on an­oth­er of his trou­bling runs in the 24th minute was hacked down in­side the box caus­ing the ref­er­ee to point to the penal­ty spot. And Jude-An­tho­ny John calm­ly slot­ted in the spot-kick de­spite the ac­ro­bat­ics of the St Au­gus­tine cus­to­di­an.

Four min­utes lat­er, Miguel Cross, who com­bined to cre­ate a trou­bling duo with James all af­ter­noon long, head­ed home from a cross from a free-kick by John­son be­fore the break for a 3-1 lead.

Af­ter­wards, both teams con­tin­ued to trade punch­es, but the home team looked the more like­ly to score, par­tic­u­lar­ly when Jahiem Grander­son picked up the ball un­marked in the 54th minute, but his rasp­ing dri­ve was some­how pushed wide by Mur­rien.

St Au­gus­tine thought they should have scored when a through ball found the skil­ful Spicer, who turned past his mark­er in the 78th minute, but his telling dri­ve was pushed wide by Mc Neil.

And they came even clos­er five min­utes from the end, as Spicer drove down the right side and de­liv­ered for an un­marked Kyle Car­ring­ton, who blazed over a gap­ing goal.

James though, al­most had the last say in the match, when he raced down the left flank but his low shot just whisked the up­right.

Mean­while, reign­ing cham­pi­on team Na­pari­ma Col­lege, de­spite drop­ping two points in its last match against East Mu­cu­rapo, main­tained its un­beat­en run with a 3-0 drub­bing of ri­vals St Bene­dict's at at the school's Lewis Street, San Fer­nan­do home, while in the sis­ter isle of To­ba­go, the home side Spey­side High record­ed its first win of the league, com­ing away with a 2-1 vic­to­ry over San Juan North.

Kern Mc Don­ald sparked wild cel­e­bra­tions with his open­ing goal in the 15th minute be­fore Nicholas Sanchez sealed the win in the sec­ond half. San Juan, the 2018 Na­tion­al In­ter­col run­ner-up, got a lone goal from Salah Chase.

Across in south­ern Trinidad, Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka al­so came from be­hind to bag all three points away to Pleas­antville Sec­ondary.

And at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um in Mara­bel­la, St Mary's con­tin­ued its los­ing streak go­ing down 3-0 to Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege of San Fer­nan­do.

WEDNES­DAY'S RE­SULTS

Queen’s Royal College 3 (Nathaniel James 13, Jude Anthony Johnson 24, Miguel Cross 29) vs St Augustine Secondary 1 (Jardel John 20)

Trin­i­ty Mo­ka 2 (Tene­son Tez­era 47th, Joshua Wil­son 83rd) vs Pleas­antville 1 (Theon Mar­cano 25th)

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege 3 vs CIC 0

Spey­side 2 (Kern Mc Don­ald 15, Nicholas Sanchez 62) vs San Juan 1 (Salah Chase 65)

Cara­pichaima 1 vs East Mu­cu­rapo 1

Na­pari­ma 3 vs St Bene­dict's 0

Trinity College East v Malick Secondary (did not play);

St Anthony’s College are on a bye

STAND­INGS:

P*W*D*L*GF*GA*GD*PTS
1. Na­pari­ma Col­lege*3*2*1*0*8*2*6*7
2. Mal­ick Sec­ondary*2*2*0*0*7*1*6*6
3. Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege*3*2*0*1*10*2*8*6
4. Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege*3*2*0*1*7*9*-2*6
5. East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary*3*1*2*0*7*3*4*5
6. Trin­i­ty Col­lege East*2*1*1*0*4*3*1*4
7. St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege*2*1*1*0*8*2*6*4
8. Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary*2*1*1*0*3*2*1*4
9. Pleas­antville Sec­ondary*3*1*0*2*4*6*-2*3
10. St. Bene­dict’s Col­lege*3*1*0*2*5*7*-2*3
11. Spey­side High*3*1*0*2*3*13*-10*3
12. Trin­i­ty Col­lege MO­KA*3*1*0*2*3*9*-6*3
13. St. Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary*3*0*2*1*4*6*-2*2
14. San Juan North Sec­ondary*2*0*0*2*1*3*-2*0
15. St. Mary’s Col­lege*3*0*0*3*2*10*-8*0

[Flex]

Speyside grab 1st win of SSFL campaign.
By Jelani Beckles (Newsday).

SPEYSIDE Secondary won its first match of the 2019 Shell/First Citizens Secondary Schools Football League Premier Division season with a 2-1 win over San Juan North Secondary in round three, yesterday.

After losing 5-0 to Malick Secondary in round one and 7-1 to St Anthony's in round two, Speyside were desperate for three points. Kern McDonald gave Speyside the lead in the first half, before Nicholas Sanchez made it 2-0 in the second half. San Juan North pulled a goal back making the Speyside supporters a bit nervous. Speyside missed a penalty in the 89th minute, but the Tobago boys held on for victory.

At Lewis Street in San Fernando, home team Naparima College got back into winning form with a 3-0 victory over fellow South Zone team St Benedict's College. Shaoib Khan gave Naps the lead in the 21st minute and Declan Marcelle doubled the defending champions' advantage with a header in the 29th minute. There were no more goals until the 94th minute when Seon Shippley found the back of the net to round off the scoring for Naparima.

There was an injury during the match that caused a delay. Marcelle, in converting the header in the 29th minute, clashed with both St Benedict's goalkeeper Dejon Blondell and defender Jabari Graham causing injuries to the three players. Blondell received a neck injury, Graham got a cut on his head and the impact caused swelling on Marcelle's head. All three players were stretchered off and were substituted. Marcelle went to San Fernando General Hospital for a CT scan, but Naparima manager Percy Samlalsingh said Marcelle should be okay. Graham's head was wrapped up and a neck brace was placed on Blondell. Marcelle walked off the field after the incident, but when he went back onto the field he started to feel dizzy and fell to the ground and was then stretchered off.

Ravi Ramloogan of St Benedict's College coaching staff said his players also received medical attention and will be fine.

In St Clair, Queen's Royal College (QRC) continued its stellar form of late with a 3-1 win over St Augustine Secondary at the former's school ground in St Clair. After being crushed 6-0 by East Mucurapo in the opening round, the Royalians got past Pleasantville Secondary 3-1 in round two and then clinched its second straight victory yesterday to move into the top half of the standings.

QRC's North Zone rivals Trinity College Moka made its journey to South count, grabbing a 2-1 win over Pleasantville Secondary. It was a determined performance by Trinity in the second half after trailing 1-0 at halftime.

The match between Trinity College East and Malick Secondary was postponed because of rain.

In the last match of the round, Carapichaima East Secondary and East Mucurapo battled to a 1-1 draw. St Anthony's were on a bye yesterday.

[asylumseeker]

Speyside grab 1st win of SSFL campaign.
By Jelani Beckles (Newsday).

...

At Lewis Street in San Fernando, home team Naparima College got back into winning form with a 3-0 victory over fellow South Zone team St Benedict's College. Shaoib Khan gave Naps the lead in the 21st minute and Declan Marcelle doubled the defending champions' advantage with a header in the 29th minute. There were no more goals until the 94th minute when Seon Shippley found the back of the net to round off the scoring for Naparima.

There was an injury during the match that caused a delay. Marcelle, in converting the header in the 29th minute, clashed with both St Benedict's goalkeeper Dejon Blondell and defender Jabari Graham causing injuries to the three players. Blondell received a neck injury, Graham got a cut on his head and the impact caused swelling on Marcelle's head. All three players were stretchered off and were substituted. Marcelle went to San Fernando General Hospital for a CT scan, but Naparima manager Percy Samlalsingh said Marcelle should be okay. Graham's head was wrapped up and a neck brace was placed on Blondell. Marcelle walked off the field after the incident, but when he went back onto the field he started to feel dizzy and fell to the ground and was then stretchered off.

Ravi Ramloogan of St Benedict's College coaching staff said his players also received medical attention and will be fine.

...

 

Other than the ref, who sanctioned his return to the field? Not a good look!

Apparently it has not been a week or two of the best decision-making at Naps.

[Flex]

Naps, Malick hold centre stage.
By Rachael Thompson-King (Guardian).

Though still ear­ly in the sea­son, Na­pari­ma Col­lege and Mal­ick Sec­ondary, top of the ta­ble clash, is set to be an ex­cit­ing one al­though they will face-off at an un­fa­mil­iar ter­ri­to­ry when they meet to­day in the Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion of the Shell/First Cit­i­zens Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League.

Both teams will trav­el to Trin­i­ty Col­lege East grounds in Trinci­ty and square-off from 3.30 pm in round-four ac­tion for the top spot in the di­vi­sion.

Mal­ick is cur­rent­ly among three teams with­in one point of the reign­ing cham­pi­on Na­pari­ma, which sits on top of the 15-team stand­ings with sev­en points from three match­es from two wins and a draw. The leader en­ters the fray hav­ing most re­cent­ly de­feat­ed St Bene­dict’s Col­lege 3-0 in their mid­week clash. This af­ter drop­ping two points against East Mu­cu­rapo (2-2) and a win against St Mary's Col­lege (3-0) in their open­er.

Op­po­nent Mal­ick has had a dream start and has six points from its first two match­es af­ter de­feat­ing Spey­side (5-0) and Trin­i­ty Mo­ka (2-1). Its third-round match against Trin­i­ty Col­lege East was resched­uled due to a wa­ter­logged field in Trinci­ty.

The oth­er two teams keep­ing things in­ter­est­ing are Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege and Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege (QRC), who both have six points from three match­es - two wins and a loss.

The pre­sen­ta­tion will meet St Bene­dict’s Col­lege, which has three points af­ter three rounds of match­es. The cur­rent­ly 10th-place St Bene­dict's will be look­ing to add some in­trigue if it can up­set the third-placed "Pres" at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um in Mara­bel­la.

QRC, with two wins and a loss, will host St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege. The "West­moor­ings Tigers" has had a steady start in­clud­ing a win and a draw from their two out­ings so far.

Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion
Round four (Start time 3.30 pm)

Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka vs Spey­side, Mo­ka, Mar­aval

St Au­gus­tine vs Cara­pichaima East, St Au­gus­tine

Queens Roy­al Col­lege vs St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege, QRC ground

St Bene­dict’s Col­lege vs Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um

Mal­ick vs Na­pari­ma, Trin­i­ty East ground

San Juan North vs Trin­i­ty Col­lege East, San Juan

St Mary’s Col­lege vs Pleas­antville, St Mary's ground

East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary - bye

Lat­est Stand­ings af­ter round three

Standings

Pl   Team   P   W   D   L   GF   GA   GD   PTS
1   Na­pari­ma Col­lege   3   2   1   0   8   2   6   7
2   Mal­ick 2   2   0   0   7   1   6   6
3   Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege   3   2   0   1   10   2   8   6
4   Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege   3   2   0   1   7   9   -2   6
5   East Mu­cu­rapo   3   1   2   0   7   3   4   5
6   Trin­i­ty Col­lege East   2   1   1   0   4   3   1   4
7   St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege   2   1   1   0   8   2   6   4
8   Cara­pichaima East 2   1   1   0   3   2   1   4
9   Pleas­antville   3   1   0   2   4   6   -2   3
10   St Bene­dict’s Col­lege   3   1   0   2   5   7   -2   3
11   Spey­side High   3   1   0   2   3   13   -10   3
12   Trin­i­ty Col­lege Moka   3   1   0   2   3   9   -6   3
13   St Au­gus­tine 3   0   2   1   4   6   -2   2
14   San Juan North 2   0   0   2   1   3   -2   0
15   St Mary’s Col­lege   3   0   0   3   2   10   -8   0

RELATED NEWS

Malick get Naps test today.
By Jelani Beckles (Newsday).

THE school with arguably the richest history in Secondary Schools football will battle the defending champions when round four of the 2019 Shell/First Citizens Secondary Schools Football League Premier Division kicks off at 3.30 pm, today.

Third placed Malick Secondary, a school that ruled schools football in the 1990s, will play 2018 champions Naparima College at the Trinity College East Ground in Trincity.

Malick have won both of their matches so far this season - a 5-0 win over Speyside Secondary in round one and a narrow 2-1 victory over Trinity Moka in round two. Malick's round three match against Trinity College East was postponed because of rain, on Wednesday.

Malick are only one point behind Naparima on the standings and will be eager for a win to leapfrog the league leaders on the standings.

Naparima are off to a strong start this season with two wins and one draw including a 3-0 win over St Benedict's College in the last round.

Yesterday, Malick coach Anthony Bartholomew said he wants his players to stay calm for today's match. "I just want them to be comfortable with themselves. I don't want them to have butterflies, I just want them to be comfortable and play to the best of their ability. That is all I want from them," the Malick coach said.

On the team's performance this season Bartholomew said, "I am satisfied with their football due to their age and the inexperience they have, they are not experienced. (It is a) young crew." It has been a high scoring season, but Malick's defence has shown their quality only allowing one goal in two matches.

Malick have produced a number of TT players including national men's football coach Dennis Lawrence, Arnold Dwarika, Brent Sancho, Gary Glasgow, Aurtis Whitley, Devorn Jorsling and Densill Theobald. Some of the former national players have spent time with the current team this season.

Bartholomew said the coaching staff reminds the team of what is needed to reach national level.

"We always try to tell them about the type of players (that attended Malick) and what is required of them to follow suit. (They must) be able to work hard."

[Tallman]

Pleasantville keep St Mary’s winless
By Jelani Beckles (T&T Newsday)

PLEASANTVILLE soared into the top five of the standings with a 2-0 win over St Mary's at the latter's school ground in St Clair, when round four matches in the 2019 Shell/First Citizens Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Premier Division were held, yesterday.

Pleasantville, sitting in tenth place in the 15-team table before yesterday, climbed to fifth place behind a strong first half performance led by striker Alemo Sampson.

Sampson got the first clearcut chance on goal in the tenth minute, but his low shot went just wide of the goalpost. Pleasantville played with energy in the opening stages creating a number of chances on goal, keeping St Mary's goalkeeper Jordan Bedaisee busy. Bedaisee was aided by his defenders as a corner kick by Pleasantville was cleared off the line.

Pleasantville put constant pressure on the St Mary's defenders. In the 15th minute, Sampson stole the ball from the St Mary's defence, but Pleasantville failed to capitalise. Minutes later, Emanuel Mohammed failed to convert a header after some solid play on the right side, before Sampson gave Pleasantville a deserved lead in the 27th minute when he ran onto a cross from the right side and slotted home.

In the 31st minute, St Mary's got their first decent chance on goal but an effort from outside the box from Tyrique Huggins went over the crossbar.

Mark Hernandez made it 2-0 for Pleasantville in the 35th minute. A pass from half-line was floated into the box and after St Mary's failed to clear the ball Hernandez pounced and he slotted home past the advancing Bedaisee. Pleasantville held their 2-0 lead until half-time.

Both teams lacked attacking creativity in the early stages of the second half as the home supporters tried their best to encourage their players. By the midway point of the second half, St Mary's were showing more fight and won a number of corner kicks but could not find the back of the net. Pleasantville were a bit lacklustre in the second half, but their defence still forced St Mary's to attempt a lot of long passes that were easily dealt with.

St Mary's created some chances in the closing stages, but it was Pleasantville who held on for the 2-0 win. St Mary's are at the bottom of the standings with four losses from as many matches.

Next door at Queen's Royal College (QRC), the home team fell 2-1 to fellow North Zone team St Anthony's. Nathaniel James gave QRC the lead in the 19th minute when he converted a close range effort after a low cross. St Anthony's equalised in the 34th minute when Donovan Claxton scored an own goal when he attempted to clear the ball. The St Anthony's "Tigers" took the lead when a shot was deflected into the goal by Ian Cowie in the 40th minute. The goals dried up in the second half as both teams failed to score. St Anthony's are now in third place and QRC are sixth.

At the Trinity College East Ground in Trincity, defending champions Naparima got past Malick 2-1 to maintain their lead at the top of the table. Second placed Presentation San Fernando stayed one point behind Naparima with a 4-0 victory over St Benedict's at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella.

OTHER RESULTS

Trinity Moka 2 vs Speyside 2
St Augustine 2 vs Carapichaima East 2
San Juan North 1 vs Trinity East 1
East Mucurapo - Bye

STANDINGS

P*W*L*D*GF*GA*Pts

Naparima*4*3*0*1*10*3*10
Presentation San F'do*4*3*1*0*14*2*9
St Anthony's*3*2*0*1*10*3*7
Malick*3*2*1*0*8*3*6
Pleasantville*4*2*2*0*6*6*6
QRC*4*2*2*0*8*11*6
East Mucurapo*3*1*0*2*9*3*5
Trinity East*3*1*0*2*5*4*5
Caps East*3*1*0*2*5*4*5
Trinity Moka*4*1*2*1*5*11*4
Speyside*4*1*2*1*5*15*4
St Augustine*4*0*1*3*6*8*3
St Benedict's*4*1*3*0*5*11*3
San Juan North*3*0*2*1*2*4*1
St Mary's*4*0*4*0*2*12*0