It’s school first, says Green Pond’s coach

Coach of Green Pond High, Gregory Daley, says the effort they are putting into the football programme at the institution is more about social intervention than chasing titles.

Green Pond went down 2-1 to hosts Cornwall College yesterday in their Zone A ISSA/WATA daCosta Cup encounter. Aiden Jokomba (57th) and Solano Birch (69th) were the scorers for Cornwall. Simon Collins (65th) got the lone goal for the visitors.

“The players must stay in school. We lose players so often due to discipline or academic standards. So we are not very concerned about winning the daCosta Cup. For me this is more than just for daCosta Cup, keeping these boys in school is my first priority. I let them know they don’t come to school to play football, it’s school first and football is an addition,” said Daley, who is also the president of the St James Football Association.

“Yes, we want to win every time we go out there but I’m not going to fool myself ... these players want more social help than football help. So I use football as a social vehicle at Green Pond,” he added.

Daley, who has been at Green Pond for the past five years, says he has seen several players develop into good footballers over the years. “I sometimes get players that I know some coaches wouldn’t bother to coach but over time you see where they have developed,” Daley said. “We have so many teams in the parish and when I started coaching at the school they had no Green Pond players. Now there are Green Pond players in several teams at different levels ... so I know that in terms of development it is happening, but getting a pool of players for this competition is not very easy,” he added.