Paul A. Reid and LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporters
WESTERN BUREAU:
NEWLY-CROWNED ISSA Pepsi/ Sports Plus daCosta Cup champions Frome Technical will be seeking to use 'home advantage' at Jarrett Park to their benefit today when they take on Manning Cup winners Excelsior in the first leg of the Olivier Shield, starting at 2:45 p.m.
Frome's coach, Boysie Nicholson, told The Gleaner this week they thought of Jarrett Park as their "happy hunting ground" and always had good results there and were hoping to make their advantage count today.
Before that game however, another Westmoreland school, Mannings, will be seeking their first national title when they take on Corporate Area and defending All-Island champions St. George's College in the Under-16 final, starting at 12:45 p.m.
Mannings won the western zone Galloway Cup and rural area Umbro Cup titles last week while St. Georges beat Jamaica College this week to retain the Corporate Area title.
For the featured game however, coach Nicholson will be hoping his team has got over its celebrations of the daCosta Cup title and is ready to face the Leebert Halliman-coached Excelsior who will be seeking their first 'outright' hold after sharing the title with Rusea's 10 years ago, in 1993.
Frome did not return to training until late this week, Nicholson said after the school's administration had declared Monday a day of celebration and some of the players had "extended it a bit and had not turned out for training".
A number of the players, he said, had to be taken to a doctor as they had been showing the physical effects of a long season.
CAUSE FOR SOME CONCERN
This was cause for some concern, Nicholson said, and he called a team meeting on Wednesday to stress the importance of winning the Olivier Shield and being the national champions, not just rural area winners.
Nicholson admitted knowing "very little about Excelsior" but said he knows of Halliman's abilities as a coach, having gone to several coaching courses with him.
"We will play our natural game and, if need be, will try to adjust as the game progresses," he said.
Frome will have an array of players to look to on offence including last week's hero Adrian Robinson, top scorer on the season, Errol Bryan, who has not scored in the past four matches, Shane Anderson and Jerome Campbell, who scored in the daCosta Cup semi-final against Cornwall College, and Jeolani Plummer.
Their strength however will be in the midfield where Ricardo Kerr, Steven Bennett, Robinson and Plummer will try to match strides with the Excelsior linkmen.
Meanwhile, coach Halliman said, "everything is against us. They're big strong and run hard. They're a good bunch, much bigger than us,
"We've been idle for almost three weeks, unable to get practice games because there was no schoolboy competition going on," he said.
In order to aid his preparation, Halliman and his boys left for Montego Bay from Thursday, citing his reason as "most of the boys have never travelled so far before. We hope to settle down and get a training session (Friday)".
Excelsior are looking to steal the Olivier Shield title from west Jamaica as it has been in that region the past two years. Excelsior shared the title in 1993 with Rusea's.
