Jamaica’s Surrey County High School championship has completed its group stage, which commenced on 6 February at Spanish Town High School. The competition, which commenced last year, follows on from the inaugural Cornwall County championship, which ended last month.

Eight schools - Kingston College, St. Georges College, Spanish Town High, Calabar High, in Group A, and Campion College, Greater Portmore High, Edith Dalton James High, St. Catherine High in Group B – are competing, at both U16 and U19 levels, with over 250 boys involved.  

St Catherine High, which missed out on the last school year, has found its return to the field hard going, losing all three matches. Nevertheless, the appetite for the sport hasn’t suffered with a great deal of enthusiasm throughout both age groups.Greater Portmore High is the team to beat going into the finals, which sees both grand finals played on 13 March. “Our U19s is very strong, competitive and are favourites to win,” said a confident Portmore coach, McKain Hamilton. “Our U16s have been a surprise; we have a good chance in the quarter finals. We should win in both age groups.  Our success is due to discipline, dedication and determination - and the love the students have for the sport. That’s what I use to get the best out of my players.” 

Should the form guide dictate the path to the finals, Hamilton’s youngsters should face Spanish Town, whose U16s topped their group. Shaen Borwn, their coach, is relying on his team leaders to guide his team through the knock-out stages.

“It’s a young team and we expect them to go out and do their best in the quarter finals,” said Brown. “Our success is due to our senior player Takeem Creary who is a good leader to the young lads. Odaine and Adrian Christie have also done well as other senior lads in the team; these guys control the younger guys in a good way and we expect our success to continue.”   

JRLA Director of Rugby Romeo Monteith, who describes the growth of the game in Jamaica as “terrifying” due to the spike in participation in 2011, is full of praise of Jamaica’s junior rugby league project. “We have had an amazing year for junior rugby league,” admitted Monteith. “First was our 9s series in Cornwall [west Jamaica], now the schools in Surrey County are playing some outstanding football with plenty of passion and skills. With the support of UK Sports International we have been able to secure our high school program for two years and Hy-Lyte Sports mix has been providing hydration for the schools as our official hydration partner, giving another boost to rugby league.”

Pictured: Edith Dalton take on campion College.