Tribute to fallen teammate drives Munro campaign

Munro College will enter this season’s Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) daCosta Cup campaign with a renewed sense of purpose as the team seeks to honour the memory of promising under-16 player Kamal Reynolds.

Reynolds, who was set to make his daCosta Cup debut this season, drowned – leaving his teammates with added motivation as they prepare for the competition.

“We are mourning the loss of Kamal. The players have committed to playing this season in honour of his memory. I think it is one of the main objectives for this season. He would have played an integral part on our team,” said second-year coach Everdean Scarlett.

Solid foundation

With 65 per cent of last season’s squad returning, Scarlett believes Munro have the foundation to build chemistry and momentum as the school prepares for its opening match on Saturday.

“As coach, I want players to play from the get-go. I want to build that team synergy from the first round. You don’t want to wait on the second round, where, you know, all the top-tier teams are,” Scarlett said.

“I intend to use the first round of the new tournament format to build team synergy and give momentum going into the second round. I think it’s good for us as a team,” he added.

This season, teams have been seeded in the daCosta Cup and Manning Cup league-format competitions for the first time. Unseeded teams will compete in the first round, with the top teams advancing to the second round, where the seeded teams will join the competition.

All teams in the rural-area daCosta Cup and Corporate Area Manning Cup will also participate in the Ben Francis KO and Walker Cup KO competitions.

For Munro, one of the traditional powers in schoolboy football, Scarlett said the main objectives are to advance from the group stage and improve on last season’s performance.

“My first expectation is to get out of the group, as we didn’t last season. Second, is to be more competitive than last season. Based on a new format, it is going to be competitive. We can’t take it for granted, because everybody will be competing,” said Scarlett.

Last season, the former champions suffered a heartbreaking first-round exit. Competing in Zone E, Munro finished fifth with eight points from two wins, two losses and two draws.

While the last time Munro failed to advance to the round of 32 was in 2018, the school has found it difficult to reach the quarter-finals in recent years, having failed to do so for the past 17 seasons.

As for preparations, Scarlett said that despite a few challenges, the team has been progressing well.

“Preparations were good. There were a few hiccups because we lost a player, and that dampened the team spirit a bit. But I think the boys overcame, dug in, and put in some work to actually have a pretty good preseason.”

The ISSA schoolboy football season opens on Saturday, September 5. Munro will face Lacovia High at Lacovia’s playing field.