Kudos, Mount Pleasant Academy!
‘Considering that just three years ago, Mount Pleasant Academy was nonexistent, to make it to Jamaica’s top-flight football in 2018-19 is in itself a momentous achievement.’
SO LAST week I compiled a list of the top sports brands in Jamaica and, much to my surprise, every other person I spoke with mentioned that I should have given honourable mention to Mount Pleasant Academy.
Kudos to founders Peter and Amanda Gould for the meteoric rise of the new giant killers, sitting majestically in third place on the current Red Stripe Premier League table. Never in the history of local football has a team risen so fast. Considering that just three years ago, Mount Pleasant Academy was nonexistent, to make it to Jamaica’s top-flight football in 2018-19 is in itself a momentous achievement. Not since the 2010-11 season has St Ann had a team in the Red Stripe Premier League. Drax Hall is alive again with the best of Jamaica’s football!
RSPL IMPACT
Mount Pleasant Academy’s rise is similar to the trajectory of a Manchester City who bucked tradition and spent heavily to attract some top names in football on their way to their first league title some years ago. With the signing of Montego Bay United’s Ladale Ritchie, Waterhouse’s former leading goal scorer Kemar Beckford, and forward Cardel Benbow, already Mount Pleasant are making their intentions known in the Red Stripe Premier League.
Kudos to coaches Donovan Duckie and Paul ‘Tegat’ Davis for Mount Pleasant Academy’s impressive start. Mount Pleasant Academy got the toughest assignments so far in the RSPL, facing both finalists from the 2018 season. They put away current RSPL champions Portmore United in week one and last year’s beaten finalists Waterhouse in week two. It must have been especially heartbreaking for the ‘Firehouse’ fans that it was former player Kemar Beckford who scored the winning goal for Mount Pleasant in that encounter.
As for Donovan Duckie, Mount Pleasant couldn’t have chosen a better coach to lead this fairytale run. No doubt, Duckie still has his sights set on that elusive premier league title. The end to last season was the nightmare he would be hoping to forget as he came so close to finally lifting the trophy with Waterhouse, only to be denied on penalties by Shavar Thomas and Portmore United. With that nightmare now behind him, the dream start so far will likely propel him to mount a convincing challenge this season.
A TRUE FOOTBALL ACADEMY
But quick rise and great premier league start aside, it is the academy itself that is most impressive about this Runaway Bay institution. Never before has Jamaica seen a football academy in the true sense of the term. The academy is aimed at developing the talent and potential of young footballers in Jamaica and now has some 50 studentathletes enrolled from grades seven to nine. There are 16 fulltime teachers employed, teaching the subjects covered in Jamaica’s formal teaching system by day and football by afternoon.
The boarding school provides a supportive structure for young players to hone their technical footballing skills while simultaneously developing academically and socially. Though privately funded, the academy will adapt the curriculum of the Ministry of Education and the relevant sections of the Code of Education Regulations Act.
With successes already at the Under-13 and Under-15 level, I am excited to see where this fits within Jamaica’s plans for qualifying for yet another World Cup Finals, and for ensuring that Jamaica’s most talented sons are developed holistically with the same opportunities afforded to those who leave our shores in hopes of signing contracts with the world’s top football clubs. The prospect of us developing a Raheem Sterling or Leon Bailey on our shores now seems possible.
While Mount Pleasant are steadily building a huge fan base and carving a new developmental plan for our most talented youth footballers, I look forward to what impact they will have on all levels of the game. I believe there are exciting times ahead for football in St. Ann! let’s wait and see! One love!