Courtney Jackson

The acquisition of a sixth form should significantly improve the strides made by Spaldings High in the daCosta Cup, head coach Courtney Jackson recently told Star Sports.

Spaldings High, which borders the parishes of Manchester and Clarendon, sprang a major surprise in 2008 when they reached the daCosta Cup final against St James High. Even though the school had won the rural Under-16 title the previous year, they were largely an unknown quantity in the daCosta Cup up to then, being one of the traditional secondary schools that were upgraded in the 1990s.

The 2008 achievement was a historic occasion for the parish of Manchester as the closest it had come to winning a senior schoolboy football title was the Holmwood team of 1989, which reached the Ben Francis semi-finals.

Jackson, who has been at the helm of the team since 2006, believes the school now has the opportunity to build a strong football tradition.

"The school was able to gain sixth-form status last year and for the first time, we have five players on the team that are in sixth form," a proud Jackson said.

players

The five are Ragae Fagan, Jushimuir Cummings, Tyrone Thompson, Shavardo White, and Martin Walcott. Walcott hails from a football family in Mandeville, as his father Mark, as well as two uncles, all played Division One football for Mile Gully and Hillstars.

Jackson, who formerly coached at Edwin Allen, explained the outlook for the sport of football at the institution.

"Football is the only sport that the school takes seriously. We have improved academi-cally, but the sport is still the thing that has put the school on the map, so having sixth form is a big plus," he explains.

The school's football programme, he predicts, will quickly rival that of its traditional counterparts, who have benefited from having Spaldings' players transferred there.

"Spaldings have suffered in the past because we have had good players who have gone on to other schools to do sixth form, so at least now we can compete schoolwise and footballwise."

Under Jackson's five-year tenure, Spaldings have won their preliminary zone four consecutive times ahead of such schools as Holmwood Technical and Edwin Allen. François Swaby, the current joint leading goalscorer in the Digicel Premeir League, and his Sporting Central Academy teammate Jamali Powell are past squad members.

While acknowledging the presence of a very young team, they placed second to last year's finalist Manchester.

'Football is the only sport that the school takes seriously. We have improved academically, but the sport is still the thing that has put the school on the map, so having sixth form is a big plus.'