Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE 2005 ISSA daCosta Cup rural area schoolboys' football season is expected to be bigger than the past four years with nearly 90 schools, including at least four newcomers, expected to take part.
Thompson Town High of Clarendon, Iona High of St. Mary, Irwin High of St James and Robert Lightbourne of western St Thomas have indicated they will be taking part in this year's renewal of the island's largest football competition.
Another school, Paul Bogle High, could also make their entrance while three schools that missed last season have indicated they are also returning. Muschett High, Morant Bay High and Cambridge High should be taking part.
Seventy-four schools took part in the competition that was won by Glenmuir High for the first time last year. Glenmuir went on to sweep all three titles, adding the Ben Francis Knockout and the All-Island Olivier Shield crown in their play-off against Manning Cup champions Excelsior High.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The announcements were made at Thursday's annual planning meeting held at Manchester High where it was also announced that Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) would join Pepsi as the major sponsors.
It was announced that Sports Plus Limited, which had co-sponsored the competition for a number of years, had pulled out. As a result, schools will now be able to seek independent sponsors as long as they do not conflict with the major sponsors, said George Forbes, ISSA's competition committee chairman.
A stipulation of the Sports Plus sponsorship was that schools had to buy equipment from them to be eligible for discounts and awards.
BEN FRANCIS KO EXPANDED
Meanwhile, the Ben Francis KO has been expanded for the second consecutive year and all 12 zone winners will take part, starting in September. Up to last year only the top four teams after the second round were eligible for the Ben Francis KO, but it was doubled to eight last year, to include all the daCosta Cup quarter-finalists.
The expansion, Forbes said, was to reward the zone winners and also to cut down on gamesmanship where some coaches manipulated results to try and avoid certain schools in the second round. Zone winners will be rewarded with a trophy and cash prize of $15,000. The eight group winners in the second stage will also get $5,000.
Forbes said the KO competition would be completed before the start of the Inter-Zone round of the daCosta Cup.
