THE INVINCIBLE ST.GEORGE’S COLLEGE

If this past season was the last at St. George’s College for coach Neville ‘Bertis’ Bell, it would be one of which he would have been proud. It would be a season that defined his career as a great high school football coach. Heck, it would be the perfect season from which to walk away from the sport, period.  Eighteen wins and one draw, 64 goals for and six goals against, is what their record was this past schoolboy season, great by any measure.

During the 2011 season St. George’s College beat the best that the Manning Cup put before them including defending champions Jamaica College, a team that won their triple last year; an emerging but talented team from Calabar High; Wolmer’s High School, and of course, the second best team in the competition, Charlie Smith High.

“This has been one of the better St. Georges College teams and the fact that they went through the season unbeaten says a lot,” said Donald Oliver of CVM television who covered matches in both schoolboy competitions this season. “Because there were a lot of teams that had the ability to take top spot including the likes of Charlie Smith, Calabar, Jamaica College and Kingston College. Any other year, those teams would have come out on top.”

What was outstanding about the win in the Manning Cup final against Charlie Smith, a team of talented players including the imposing Javoni Simms, who Bell described as perhaps the best schoolboy footballer in the island, is that St George’s played the entire second half of the match a man short. National Under-17 representative Romario Jones was sent off just before half-time and it hardly mattered. St George’s weathered a storm of attacks from their opponents for the first 20 minutes of the second half during which they conceded a rare goal before they gradually eased themselves back into contention and eventually win 3-1. Playing a man short they outscored Charlie Smith 2-1 in the second half.

They then went on to defeat a strong Kingston College team to take the Walker Cup in final that turned out to be fairly exciting if not almost anti-climactic. Kingston College, for all their prowess proved no match for the Light Blues. Then just this past week, in what many expected to be a battle royale with DaCosta Cup Champions, the marauding Rusea’s High School for the Olivier Shield, St. George’s proved once again that they reign supreme. Both games were won by respective one-nil margins which by no stretch spoke to the domination of one team over the other. Veteran coach of the ‘Russians’ Emerson Henry conceded afterwards that they were totally outplayed by St. Georges College. Even the more passionate Anthony ‘Follies’ Williams, a man not given to giving any quarter whilst defending his young charges, reluctantly admitted that St. George’s was the better team.

During Saturday’s second leg of the Olivier Shield finals, Oliver mentioned during the match that Rusea’s, for all their talent, played more like individuals, while St. George’s played like a team.

The sentiment about the on-field play was also shared by Anthony Thompson, the coach of Spanish Town High, the only team who managed to hold the North Street juggernaut to a nil-all draw early in the season. Prior to that match in early September Bell, speaking on Sportsnation Live on Nationwide radio, said he was wary of that Spanish Town team and it proved to be justified. Thompson lamented the fact that his team lacked a striker for the season after losing Kenroy Howell and expressed regret at not getting his team to the finals to once again face St. George’s. However, he acknowledged that this year’s triple champions stood out for their team play. “They were unstoppable,” he said. “They are very good going forward and in defending. They play like a unit. They even played like a unit coming off the bench.”

According to the veteran coach who has seen many Manning Cup champions over the years, this St. George’s unit was not as talented as, for example, at the 1995 Charlie Smith team that featured Kevin ‘Pele’ Wilson but it is ‘how they play together’ that made this team better. It was ironic that Thompson would chose to compare this St George’s team with the 1995 Charlie Smith team that featured a quintet of stars that included Wilson, Cornell Chin-Sue, Everton Bunsie, Eugene Barnes and Kwame Richardson while this year’s triple champions featured a quintet that represented Jamaica in the Under-17 World Cup during the summer. Oshane Jenkins, Cordell Benbow, Nico Campbell (goalie) Romario Jones and Andre Lewis most certainly used their world cup experience to good advantage during the season. They along with Davion Kelly whose skills can only be considered as sublime; Kendon Anderson and of course, the level-headed Richard Garvey, all seemed to hold their egos in check to play some outstanding football reflecting the philosophy and personality of their modest head coach whose name will now be added to the list of the legendary coaches of high school football.