Adrian Frater, News Editor
Western Bureau

Last Thursday afternoon,I went down to the UDC playing field in Montego Bay to watch the season-opening St James FA/Jamaica National Building Society Senior League football game between ABES and Gully Ambassadors. For the first time in many moons, I left a game with a good feeling about St James' football.

What I saw fully reflected what I have been hoping for in a St James domestic game in recent years: talented young players with the requisite skills, attitude and composure to take the parish's football back to the enviable levels that once made St James the undisputed capital of national football.

Unlike recent years, when St James domestic football was more like a departure lounge for players heading into retirement, what I saw at the UDC playing field was clearly an attempt to unearth and expose new talent. The players, most of them teenagers fresh out of the daCosta Cup, were quite exciting and for the most part, possess the qualities needed to attract spectator support.

The game evoked pleasant memories of the double champion Reno FC team of the late 1980s, which featured exciting youngsters, such as the late Caple Donaldson, Michael Graham, Donald Hewitt, Mark 'Haglar' Wilson and Aaron Lawrence, who were all fresh out of daCosta Cup football at the time. Interestingly, all the players mentioned went on to represent Jamaica.

have the capacity

While the youngsters of ABES and Gully Ambassadors are not yet up to the enviable standard attained by former St James and Jamaica stalwarts, such as Hector Wright, Durrant Brown, Devon Rickettes, Warren Barrett and the late Winston Anglin and Stephen Malcolm, I am convinced that once they stay focused and committed, they clearly have the capacity to be the next generation of St James stars.

And speaking of stars, I am flabbergasted by the non-selection of St James High School's 16-year-old midfielder Ricardo Morris to the national Under-20 team. I just watched the Jamaica versus Nigeria game on television and to be brutally frank, I did not see any Jamaica player displaying Morris' exemplary passing skills or no nonsense approach before the goal.

I don't know the individuals who are now serving as talent scouts for the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) here in western Jamaica, but whoever those persons are, they must be fast asleep on the job. Nobody with any semblance of knowledge about football could see young Morris and not recognise that he is all but a reincarnated Winston Anglin.

instigate petty squabbles

Instead of trying to defend the indefensible and wasting time trying to instigate petty squabbles, I am challenging the St James FA to start asking questions of the JFF when talented youngster like Morris are bypassed for national selection, even within his age group. Saying he is young and has time is sheer rubbish; unless one should believe that Brazil made a mistake when a 17-year old Pele was selected for the 1958 World Cup.

After watching St James High School in the 2008 daCosta Cup and then seeing the recent ABES against North Gully game, I believe St James is once again producing quality players capable of going places. It must be the business of the St James FA to 'bawl out' whenever they are bypassed for national selection by coaches who can't seem to see further than Flat Bridge in St Catherine.

And back to the St James FA domestic programme, now that the youngsters in the parish are again showing that they are willing and ready to breathe new life into the parish's football. I hope the FA will now exercise the requisite courage needed to transform the Guardian Life Division Two, which is now a free-for-all, into a meaningful Under-19 or Under-17 competition.

If the Guardian Life competition becomes an Under-19 or Under-16 competition, it would create opportunities for more young players to come to the fore. In addition, it would release some of the old thrill-seekers now wasting time and sponsors' money, from playing so that they can become spectators and contribute to gate receipts at games.

N.B. Feel free to send your feedback to adrianfrater@hotmail.com.