Watson’s success at JC not a KC slight

WHEN JAMAICA College (JC) lifted the Burger King/ISSA Under-16 (COLTS) football title at the Stadium East on Monday, defeating Wolmer’s Boys’ School 2-1 in the final, they were doing so under new head coach Raymond ‘Stampy’ Watson.

Winning schoolboy junior titles is nothing new for Watson, the former Kingston College coach (KC). Watson, from 2014-2021, won 12 titles from under-14 to under-16, while KC.

During those years, Watson only lost twice in the under-16 competition, a period where his team never lost at home. JC’s win was a record-breaking performance, the Hope Road Blues scoring 69 goals on the season.

This number bettered the previous best of 54 goals done by a KC team coached by Watson.

Since his departure from coaching the under-16 team at KC, they have racked up 11 losses, including seven at home.

Watson was elevated to KC’s Manning Cup team last season following the departure of Ludlow Bernard. Watson, who served for several years under Bernard at the North Street institution as assistant coach, only spent one year in the top post before moving on to rivals JC at the start of the 2023 season.

“When I resigned at the start of the season as head coach of Kingston College, it was not my intention to go and coach at Jamaica College. I never left Kingston College to go to Jamaica College,” said Watson.

“When I left Kingston College, the plan was to be away from coaching football for a while. It was, however, in the public sphere that I was at Jamaica College coaching the day after I resigned because people saw me there speaking with head coach Davion Ferguson,” he said

“I was in the United States trying to be away from football. Never planned to coach, but possibly those people helped to make that decision for me,” he said.

“I was contacted by four schools, including Jamaica College, to be a part of their coaching team. Mr Ferguson, who in the past, has coached my son, and who is my good friend for years, asked me to join him. After speaking with him and past students Brandon Samms and Ian Forbes, along with the principal, I agreed,” said Watson.

“Leaving Kingston College to go to Jamaica College was not an easy decision. It was not done overnight. Also, after speaking to my very good friend, Derrick Banks, a Kingston College old boy who, over the years, has given me a lot of support with the football programme about my decision, he said that he would support me in any decision I made, and that made my job much easier,” said Watson.

“I still have many very good friends at Kingston College who still love me. For some, it is a love-hate thing, but there are more who love me,” he said.

According to Watson, there is no ill will towards KC.

“I still have a close relationship with Kingston College. There are a few boys who I am still responsible for by paying their school fees. In life one has to make a decision in one’s best interest.”