Defending daCosta Cup champions Rusea's look awesome

Western Bureau:

With the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association's 2011 schoolboy football season now looming on the horizon, defending daCosta Cup champions Rusea's High School are among the many schools now harbouring lofty expectations.

"Our preparations have been going quite well," said Anthony 'Follies' Williams, who is co-coach of the 'Russians' with Emerson 'Diggy' Henry. "In fact, I very much like what I am seeing at this time."

At the start of last season, there was not a lot of confidence in the Rusea's camp. At the time, co-coach Henry, who has had a hand in the nine titles the school has won since 1983, said he was of the view that the team was short on experience and needed more time to gel.

However, after a brilliant season, in which they went unbeaten in the daCosta Cup, winning 13 times and drawing twice in their 15 games, Rusea's emerged champions, albeit courtesy of a controversial goal in their 1-0 win against Lennon High School in the final.

"We have lost keys players like Ramon Foster, Jermaine Woozencraft and Miguel Jones from last year's winning team, but I think we have more than adequate replacements," said Williams. "We have a lot of players coming up from the Under-16 ranks, who are showing a lot of promise."

Golden boot winner

In looking at some of the calibre players Rusea's have retained from last year's winning team, some of the likely opponents could already be having nightmares as they contemplate facing them in the upcoming season.

Leading the charge for the 'Russians' will be last year's golden boot winner Brian Brown, the versatile Nicodie Haughton, the robust Wonnick Pinnock, the hard-tackling Torito Gregory and national Under-17 players, goalkeeper Richard Trench and the speedy striker Anthony Walker, who scored the controversial goal in last year's final.

"I would say we have the nucleus of the team and with the experience they have gained last year, hopefully, they will be even better players this year," said Williams. "We have also acquired Tevan Dixon, who represented Herbert Morrison last year, and based on what we have seen of him, he looks a very good prospect."

While the 'Russians' have not been playing a lot of practice games against schoolboy teams, they gave their fans a glimpse of what can be expected of them recently when they effortlessly spank Manning's 4-0 in a reunion game on their home turf.

"We are very optimistic about our chances this year," said Williams. "Our first objective is to win on the competition's opening day and then take it from there."

With nine daCosta Cup titles under their belt, Rusea's are tied with Vere Technical High School as the second most successful in the annals of the daCosta Cup, behind Cornwall College, who have won the coveted trophy 11 times.

- A.F.