Wellington: Balance is key - ISSA boss weighs in on dominance of rural football teams this season

Western Bureau:

With rural teams breaking the trend and dominating the local football scene this season, president of the Inter Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), Keith Wellington, is not reading too much into the recent results but said his organisation is focused on creating a level playing field.

The topic of the better quality of football and the urban vs rural phenomenon has been reignited following Tuesday’s Under-14 and Under-16 all-island title wins by rural teams, which completed a clean sweep of the three traditional age group all-island schoolboy football titles.

Cornwall College and St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) captured the Under-14 and Under-16 titles, respectively.

Their wins come on the heel of Clarendon College’s successful defence of their Olivier Shield (Under-19 all-island) title.

The only all-island title not won by a rural school is the lucrative ISSA Champions Cup crown, which was won by Kingston College over Clarendon College.

While happy to see the rural teams showing their quality this season, Wellington, who is also the principal at STETHS, said he is not reading too much into it, as a shift in dominance is part and parcel of sport.

“I’m not sure I want to read too much into it, this is just one year. However, the teams would have done fairly well, and if you look at the three teams in Cornwall College, STETHS and Clarendon College, they are traditionally strong teams not only in rural Jamaica,” Wellington said.

“We know that sport is cynical, so there will come a time where dominance will always shift to different places, hence I don’t read too much into it. It is a good indication that good-quality football is being played right across the island,” he added.

Urban area players get more opportunity

Wellington noted that given the resources available to the players in the urban area, he is extremely proud of the level of competition the rural schools continue to display.

“I think that the urban area players get a lot more opportunity to expose and develop their talent through competition starting from Under-10. It is not so in the rural area and I think it sort of hampers their growth and development,” said Wellington. “However, the fact is that some schools have good programmes and coaches despite players not having played a lot of football in their earlier years. When you’re able to compete with players with better programmes in terms of facilities and competition structure, it augurs well for the rural area.”

When asked about the idea that ISSA has been shouldering the burden of football development for quite a number of parish football associations in the rural area, Wellington told The Gleaner they just want to see a level playing field.

“ISSA wants to see a level playing field for all. There are some things that we have no control over, for example, the competitions of the confederations or parish association. If one parish association is better organised than another, we really have no business criticising or trying to interfere in that. However, we would want to see that wherever the kids are, they have equal opportunities,” Wellington said.