Consistency is key for Cornwall

Despite sporting a fairly young squad this season with quite a few new faces, Dr Dean Weatherly, coach of 12-time daCosta Cup champions Cornwall College, is looking to keep the legacy of consistency when the 2018 ISSA/Wisynco daCosta Cup gets under way Saturday.

The 2016 champions failed to repeat their success last season, as they were forced out of the competition at the quarter-finals group stage, losing 2-1 to eventual champions Rusea's High School.

"Well, as a young team we are going to be grooming them for the years to come. We are trying to develop a legacy here at Cornwall (College) from under-14 coming right through, so every year we have to give a good account of ourselves. This year our goal is if we reach the semi-finals anything can happen from there," said Weatherly.

"It's a good group of boys with a lot of heart, willing to learn and they have improved a lot over the summer. We are looking ahead for great things and hoping to improve on what we did last year," he added.

Fine-tuning team

Weatherly is looking to use the preliminary games to fine-tune his team and get them closer to competition mode. He noted that he is pleased with the preparations so far.

"We probably maintained about 65 per cent of the team and maybe five out of the (starting) eleven from last year. We have an experienced spine to work with and then the supporting cast," said Weatherly.

"It (preparation) has been good. We used preseason games to see where we are ... we looked at developing each player individually. Players have improved leaps and bounds so we are looking towards the real test come Monday, and then from there we can start doing further assessments," he added.

Weatherly will be looking to his experienced players such as Aiden Jacombo, Shavon McDonald, Denue Ricketts, Nigel Ellis, goalkeeper Davion Peterkin and the pair of Matthew Thorpe and Salano Birch, who joined from Herbert Morrison Technical High School, to lead from the front line.