IS JC ON THE VERGE OF IMMORTALITY
Jamaica College is two or three games away from completing the 2014 schoolboy football season unbeaten. With the inaugural LIME Super Cup and the Manning Cup already in the bag, JC have only to defeat St. Georges College in the Walker Cup title and to play the winner of the daCosta Cup – either Clarendon College or STETHS – for the Olivier Shield.
Success in those remaining games – in hindsight, it could be two games since I believe the Olivier Shield has now been reduced to a one-off, winner-take-all match – would see JC not only ending the season undefeated, it would also see them winning four schoolboy titles in one season, a pretty impressive achievement.
It wont be even necessary to start comparing this team with other great schoolboy teams because this JC team is not even in the conversation. This team is nowhere as good as the 1977 all-conquering Clarendon College team coached by Winston Chung Fah, and even though I never saw those teams, I suspect that they were not nearly as good as Wolmer’s 1971 Manning Cup teams nor the 1964 Kingston College team that many people say is arguably the best schoolboy football team in Jamaica’s history. Heck, they might not even be the best team of this current era. St. Georges, I believe, holds that title. Having said that however, there is a lot to admire about this JC team.
Led by perhaps the best schoolboy footballer today, Junior Flemmings, JC has displayed a tenacity that has seen them survive scares from Cornwall College in the LIME Super Cup; Camperdown in the Manning Cup semi-final and a spirited Charlie Smith in last Saturday’s final. Flemmings has left an indelible mark on this team and schoolboy football that will make him a legend in this era.
Every time a team has pushed JC, Flemmings took over the game and ensured that his team would prevail. In the LIME Super Cup final, he had a hand in both JC goals as his team withstood the challenge of Holy Trinity. He was even more inspirational against a Camperdown team that could have and perhaps should have beaten JC in the Manning Cup semis, and of course, his opening goal led the way to the successful defense of the Manning Cup title against a determined but profligate Charlie Smith High.
Anyone doubting Flemmings’ talent need only to note the interest expressed in him by Manchester City FC’s Academy and Toronto FC. The young man has talent and a maturity that belies his age and his leadership on and off the field has been a cornerstone to the legacy the team has constructed over the past half-a-decade.
The over-arching leadership has been equally as responsible for the school’s success. The support structure and the coaching staff around this team must be lauded. The most successful teams, schoolboy teams in Jamaica, are usually the ones that have the best supporting staff behind their on-field efforts and what is happening at Jamaica College is a clear indication of the kind of support behind the team. Ian Forbes ought to be praised for his efforts, as well as the coaching staff led by Miguel Coley, arguably the best schoolboy coach. All of these efforts have been marshaled by Prinicipal Ruel Reid.
There are those who will argue about JC’s recruiting campaign and certainly that has had some bearing on their success, but to be fair, other schools that have recruited have come nowhere close to JC’s success as they have proven that recruiting, as frowned upon as it has been, does not guarantee victory.
JC could be about to become immortal and there have been many behind what would be a history-making achievement.
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24 Responses to “IS JC ON THE VERGE OF IMMORTALITY”
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A school so great they named the country off it. One College!
Only a good article, nothing more than that. alot of your points can be argued but i just want to take the time out to big up Flemming. sorry sir but you speak from a bias stand point. Ajuma Johnson for example from Camperdown is an exceptional player but does not have the team support as Flemmings. support is what got JC over the line and that is what i agree with. big up to them for that if Charlie Smith, Camperdown and Trinity had that kind of support you would not write this today. JC would have been a non factor.
big up still.
I am a Cornwall College (class of 1967) Past Student, who has seen all the truly outstanding teams you mentioned in the third paragraph. Without debating your claims, please remember some facts: Cornwall (the original “CC”), beat JC when they last met before this year’s LIME Super Cup game, by 5-0 in Montego Bay in 1963. It was probably the biggest shock to a team which boasted some JC heroes such as goalkeeper Orville Williams and Peter Morgan, among other big names. At the time, this was the largest margin, single score in an Olivier Shield match. The return leg at the National Stadium ended 0-0. However, Montegonians were not surprised because we felt that this 1963 Cornwall team was the greatest ever, and we maintain it could have beaten the KC team of ’64 and the Wolmer’s team of ’71.
After all, that Cornwall team included soccer legends such as Allie McNab, Steve Bucknor (the reserve goalkeeper!), Keith Thorpe, Anthony Jumpp, Dwight Taylor and captain Noel ‘Rabbit’ Henry.and was coached by Scotsman, Ian Rorison.
Then in 2001, Cornwall College broke its own record (and Vere’s 6-1 over XLCR) by trouncing Bridgeport 7-0 in Kingston. That team boasted the likes of Garrick ‘Fastcar’ Gordon, and national representatives at some level, Dane Richards, Deshawn Woolery and goalkeeper Richard McCallum.That record still stands!
The greatest schoolboy team of all times? Anybody’s guess. My choice, the Cornwall team of 1963.
Roy Ten-Fah
Montego Bay
Interesting article but moreso the comments
Bandeedo I like your assessment and that was the exact reasoning I gave when I said Maradona is better than Pele.
Mr Ten Fah execellent presentation Im sure if CC had a chance to win a triple crown that year they probably would have done so I think sometimes my fellow Journalists get carried away with the triple crown thing using as the only benchmark for greatness if that was the case why are we not applauding the RUSEA”S team of 1985 as the greatest of all time after having had an unprecedented sniff of 4 titles in one season (for the record they actually shared the OLIVIER SHEILD WITH KC} What about the Charlie Smith team of 1995 that won every match they played that season? It seems that
most of the scribes were a bit biased towards the KC TEAMS OF 64 and 65, the Wolmers team of 71 and the Clarendon team of 77 (which by the way had a plethora of KINGSTON BASED RECRUITS).As a consequence you keep hearing about these teams as the best ever year after year.In fairness to the 65 KC team though for them to have 10 players selected on the all Manning team that year must mean that the team was exceptional. But nowadays schools will never have that opportunity again because the all manning all daCosta game has been since abandoned. At the end of the day the greatest football team? Cornwal 63, KC 65, VERE 67-68 Wolmers 71 Clardon 77,Charlie Smith 95, purely subjective .
Interesting article but moreso the comments
Bandeedo I like your assessment and that was the exact reasoning I gave when I said Maradona is better than Pele.
Mr Ten Fah execellent presentation Im sure if CC had a chance to win a triple crown that year they probably would have done so I think sometimes my fellow Journalists get carried away with the triple crown thing using it as the only benchmark for greatness if that was the case why are we not applauding the RUSEA”S team of 1985 as the greatest of all time after having had an unprecedented sniff of 4 titles in one season (for the record they actually shared the OLIVIER SHEILD WITH KC} What about the Charlie Smith team of 1995 that won every match they played that season? It seems that
most of the scribes were a bit biased towards the KC TEAMS OF 64 and 65, the Wolmers team of 71 and the Clarendon team of 77 (which by the way had a plethora of KINGSTON BASED RECRUITS).As a consequence you keep hearing about these teams as the best ever year after year.No has ever spoke of the CC team of 1963 or the Vere teams of 67 or 68 In fairness to the 65 KC team though for them to have 10 players selected on the all Manning team that year must mean that the team was exceptional. But nowadays schools will never have that opportunity again because the all manning all daCosta game has been since abandoned. At the end of the day the greatest schoolboy football team? Cornwal 63, KC 65, VERE 67-68 Wolmers 71 Clarendon 77 Rusea’s 85,Charlie Smith 95,Glenmuir 2004, purely subjective .
You’re not sure of the facts of which you’re writing about. You need to better understand the past teams that you’re comparing this year’s JC team to. You know nothing about CC 1977, Wolmers 1971 or KC 1964, so you’re not qualify to make the comparison with those teams. You should stick to what you better know, which would be this modern day era.
The JC Manning Cup & Olivier Shield Championship team of 1974 with the likes of Martin Woodstock, Luke Whitney, Maxie Coleman, Jimmy Sinclair and Norman Pennnicoke, coached by the legendary Dennis Zadie surpassed this current crop in overall talent and compared quite favourably to the Wolmers team of 1971 in the way the played the beautiful game, total football as it was then conceptualized.
Really? I saw CC 77, saw them destroy Calabar at the national stadium. This JC team was nowhere as good as that team. Based on consensus, that team was one of the best with the others being Wolmers 71 and KC 64. So I can use the CC team as a point of reference to make the comparison.
i’m surprised noone has mentioned the allan ‘skill’ cole led vere technical teams of the mid to late 60′s. among school boy players, cole was the sickest of them all and only the ’65 k.c team was able to conquer them.
underachievement robbed the late ‘dago’ gordon led trench town side of a place in the annals of big school boy teams, but that was a talent-laden bunch as well.
Really now. All these postings behave as if schoolball football only began in the 1960′s. Remember the Mannaing and Dacosta Cups are over 100 yeras old. So what about the teams of the first 50 years? Folks I know have spoken about great StGC, KC, Wolmers teams of the fifties and before. Why leave those out? So when you post, qualify your ststements by saying, this or that team may have been the best since…such and such a year, unless you can speak with unquestionable authority.
It sweet me how George’s won the Walker Cup and mash up the dolly house!
I agree with E Findlay about the JC 74 team.I would say it is in my top 2 best I have seen and I am a KC past student.Yes,KC beat them in Manning cup that year but JC had a massive amount of talent that also included Bond,and Herbie “Tank” Nelson.They had the off sides trap going great guns for them and KC got that one opportunity and spoiled it for them ( 1-0 ).The Clarendon team which followed right after was very good,but I won’t say they were the best that year because KC had a dynamic team also( Douglas Bell,Grant etc).But,the comments are great.Have some more fun.
Anyone who knows anything about football and saw the KC teams of 1964 & 1965, would not hesitate that no other schoolboy team has approached that level of greatness since then. To have had 10 starters on the all-Manning team and eventually 11 in the second half of the game is more than enough evidence.
Defender can you tell me who was that 11th player ? I have heardf Francis Delgado of JC and Russell Bell of St GC being the others players playing in each half. The records also show that the Vere Technical team of 1968 also had ten players selected to the All daCosta Squad and that the team scored 86 goals and conceded only 3 on their way to winning every match they played that season Wouldn’t that performance be comparable or possibly surpass the 64 and 65 KC teams ? They beat Cornwall College 11-1 to win the daCosta Cup and JC 10-1 on aggregate to lift the Olivier Sheild Those margins of victory have been unmatched by any other school to date . What say you in comparing them with the KC teams of 64 and 65 ?
Ian, you are spot on concerning the supremacy of that 1968 Vere Technical team led by the likes of Corcel Blair and Lascelles Shaw …they played as if invincible and nobody came close to stopping them …truly one of the all time great Jamaican schoolboy soccer teams. I was too young to see the 1964/65 KC team but I believe the reports about their quality and would include them in my all time great top five as follows: 1)Vere 1968, 2)Wolmers 1971, 3)Kingston College 1964, 4)Clarendon College 77, 5) Jamaica College 1974
Thanks Errol,sadly though Defender has gone silent on that matter.Admittedly I did not see any of your top five teams play I am only going off statistics and word of mouth .The team with the most impressive record would be Vere 68 KC 65 Charlie Smith 1995, KC 64 , Wolmers 71 Cllarendon 77 Vere 67 Cornwall 63 Camperdown 82 and Ruseas 1985.
The JC team of 1974 although I heard so much great stories about their legendary performance drew zone matches with Trench town Wolmers and C’bar and lost the Walker Cup as well to the Red Hills road school . All the other schools mentioned in the list were dominant in the matches they played in their respective season which they ended unbeaten .Again all this is purely subjective and it’s only a pity we don’t have any film available to see of these outstanding teams .Fast forward to the present JC team , a great crop of youngsters although I think last years team was a bit more talented player for player but this years was managed a lot better and in Junior Flemings they possess a very promising talent that’s should be nurtured
Ian, many times statistics don’t reveal the level of the competition or the brand of football played by champion teams. In the case of Vere 1968, they were far superior to the level of football being played by their competition. JC had a pretty good manning Cup team that year led by freekick specialist, Oliver Dixon and Tony James which hammered KC 3-0 in the Manning Cup final but was totally outclassed by a rampant Vere in both legs of the Olivier Shield.
Wolmers 1971 led by Richard Davy, Keith Tulloch and Paul Pringle played the most attacking brand of football I’ve ever seen at that level and like Vere 1968, looked invincible. If I recall correctly, a good Dacosta Cup champion team, Vere 1971, had them two nil down at half time and they rallied to win the Olivier shield 3-2 in a brilliant 2nd half blitz of attacking football …one for the ages.
JC 1974, was the head of the class of a really good crop of players in above-average teams such as KC, Calabar and Excelsior, that year. The stats can’t capture that my friend, only those who were witnesses. That is why we have to respect the popular very high regard for the KC 1964 team as well.
Yes Errol that’s real true but it seems a little strange that over the years it has been all about the high profile Manning Cup teams and the DaCosta cup teams are rarely up for mention. Based on what you and all others seem to be saying is that the 60s and 70s saw the best brand of football amongst schoolboys in Jamaica . It’s a pity I didn’t see those teams . My top 5 teams ( the ones I saw ) are Charlie Smith 1995, Camperdown 1982 , Ruseas 1985, JC 2013 Ruseas 1992 .I recall the 1991 Charlie Smith team was bubbling at a relentless pace only to be kicked out of the competition for using an in eligible player who wasn’t even a regular starter . Some people were saying serve them right but the real reason was that they couldn’t bear to see the school in their 4th straight Manning Cup final . Bad mind has been around for quite sometime
Question for you, although there was no Manning Cup in 1973 there was talk that the JC team was invincible and despatched all the school boy teams they played in friendlies that year and 75 although KC beat them twice JC was really the toast team that year ,which of those JC teams was really the best and why ?
Very good question, Ian. That 1973 JC squad was better than the 1974 squad on paper, in that there were two or three seasoned stalwarts I can remember, with the quality and class to make the All-Manning squad, at the pinacle of their Schoolboy Footballing careers, in particular, one outstanding central defender “Stevo” and midfielder, Teddy Alexander, who either graduated or became ineligible by age, the following year. In the absence of the competitions in 1973 we’ll never know how good they really were but they won every out-of-competition game and had a very successful tour of Bermuda.
As previously stated the 1974 team was one of the very best in terms of the flair and style of their playing. Those boys controlled the games, keeping possession for long periods while interchanging roles and overlapping on the wings (long before those strategies were popular among coaches). That 1974 team was the first to use the high pressing game and off-side trap to cripple the offensive plays of opposing teams and it was marvellous to watch (Dutch football on home soil). Martin Woodstock, Luke Whitney, Maxie Coleman, Jimmy Sinclair, Norman Pennicooke and goal-keeper Donavan Brown were supremos.
By 1975, towards the end of the season, the core of that squad had peaked, after running through the zonal rounds, including the Walker Cup semifinals undefeated, like a hot knife through butter, while playing the beautiful “total football” brand of soccer that was coach Dennis Zadie’s phylosophy at the time. Their 1-0 loss to KC in the final, after outplaying KC and squandering countless chances was the biggest anticlimax I’ve ever seen in all of Schoolboy football competition …I mean it was an unbelievable upset, the way that team was playing …that was when I really learned the maxim “the ball is round”(LOL). KC grew in confidence and stature after that victory and confirmed their late rounding-into-form by repeating victory over a still heart-broken JC team in a far less one-sided Walker Cup rematch. KC went on to win the Triple that year, boasting the likes of Dougie Bell, Lorne Donaldson and Bally Reid, under the astute coaching of the late George Thompson. That KC team became very good late in the season. I hope the above answers your question.
Thanks my brother this is an excellent analysis .Potentially the 1973 team seemed to have been the best of them all.
JC should have won in 1982.
How can we have a meaningful discussion about the best schoolboy football team and StGC teams of 1984, 1992 and 2011 is not mentioned? KC? Really? Joke Ting.
Ian, If your were to ask which team was the greatest that failed to win a trophy and was better than most of the previous champions, it would have to be JC 1975.
I hear you Errol,but KC supporters may say that they beat JC twice that year which would cast doubts on their invincibility and some say the Trench Town team of 1969 and the KC team of 77 could be included in that category as well. Richard I don’t believe JC could have beaten Camperdown in 1982 .DeeRich ,the 84 George’s team lost 1-0 to Wolmers in an early season game and lost to Cornwall in the Nutrament Sheild final that year and the 1992 team lost the Olivier Sheild to Ruseas so they can’t be included in a list of all time greats. The 2011 team could be considered though. I would like to include in the list as well, the St Jago team of 2003 . They won the Walker Cup but drew only one manning cup match with Norman Manley in the semi final round and were squeezed out on goal difference . It was a a real tragedy as they ended the season unbeaten and played the best brand of attacking football that year