One-minute silence before matches
THERE WILL be no postponement of tomorrow’s FLOW/ISSA schoolboy football matches.
This was up for consideration because of the untimely passing of St George’s College’s Manning Cup captain, Dominic James, who collapsed on the field of play five minutes into their Group A game against Excelsior High at Stadium East on Tuesday.
Keith Wellington, ISSA’s vice-president, told The Gleaner that the St George’s College fraternity was in favour of honouring their Friday fixture against Greater Portmore at Winchester Park, so they saw no reason for the postponement.
However, he says there will be a meeting today to make a final decision.
“There will be no postponement,” the St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) principal stated.
“We were thinking that, at a very minimum, we would postpone the games in that zone until next week and go ahead with the other games. But we met with the principal (St George’s) and coach (Neville Bell), and Dr Small (Walton, ISSA president) spoke with the parents, and they were okay with that, so it (postponement) is unlikely,” he said.
GAME ON FRIDAY
“So far, the George’s people want to play their game on Friday, so if they want to play, it is very unlikely we will postpone any games. But we have a sit-down meeting tomorrow (today), so whatever the final decision, it will come out of that,” he added.
The STETHS principal said James’ death had a devastating impact on ISSA.
“Apart from the shock, we (ISSA) would have been devastated. If you follow football, Dominic is a person you would know of, and if you met him, you could not have met a nicer young man, so, for us, it makes it even harder to take, as most ISSA executives would have known Dominic personally and would have interacted
with him, so it hit very close to home.”
As a mark of respect, all games leading up to the burial of the player will be marked by a minute’s silence.
“We have advised that for all games leading up to his burial, there should be one minute of silence before each match, both Manning and daCosta Cup,” Wellington informed.
“The next TV game should be STETHS-Munro, and if that is the case, then we are going to make some arrangements regarding that on Saturday.”
Wellington also said the incident gives ISSA an opportunity to review their medical protocol.
“In terms of how the young man was transported to the hospital and the response time, it could have been better,” he said. “So when something like this happens, you have to use the opportunity to review what you have in place and see if anything can improve, even if nothing is wrong with what you have.
“If you can learn from the experience, learn from it, and improve on what you have,” said Wellington.