Schools league football to restart

By Morissa Lindsay

The Barbados Secondary Schools Football League (BSSFL) is in the process of restarting its Under-16 and 19 competitions as of next week following the COVID-19 pandemic and president Wren Ramsay is happy with the response from participating schools.

During a telephone interview with Barbados TODAY, Ramsay said they are in the process of getting ready to restart competitive football tentatively from Monday, October 24 with the Under-19s and on Wednesday, October 26 with the Under-16s.

“We are not relooking the league format (per se) but because of the break we are going to go to a two-zone format for this year’s competition only and we use the standings from this year’s competition of the two-zone format to rebuild league one and two for next year,” Ramsay stated.

He added: “We want the Under-19 Boys to be able to play because we want to give them the scouting opportunities but we are really focusing on the youth 16s and we are going to use them to rank the teams for league one and two next year.”

This year’s competition is expected to last for 10-12 weeks for both age groups and Ramsay noted that while they will go over into term two which is predominantly a track and field season, the BSSFL committee is hoping to have both tournaments wrapped up before sports commences.

“We know for sure we are going to slip over into term two but we want to have everything wrapped up before the athletic championship,” he said.

According to Ramsay, so far every school has signed up for the competition except for the Barbados Vocational Training Board which has participated in previous years and will be missed this time around due to the fact that school starts for them in November and by that time competitive action would have commenced.

From a developmental standpoint as it relates to schools’ football, the president told Barbados TODAY they are focusing heavily on continuing education and creating opportunities for the boys after they leave secondary school. Ramsay also indicated that they have something special planned for girls’ football because they too are an integral part of BSSFL.

“We are focusing heavily on continuing education for the boys after they leave secondary school. So, we are looking to create scouting opportunities to get them into college or semi-professional teams when they leave secondary school and continue playing the game. It has always been our vision that the more professionals we have playing the game, the more we will be able to improve the local game.

“The ladies are never to be left out and on the last Friday of this month we will be hosting our Goals for Hope. We did it just before the pandemic at the Usain Bolt Sports Complex and we are moving this year to the Pinelands’ field. So, it is going to be a females football festival, no skills necessary. We just want to get awareness brought to the sport and use this opportunity also to highlight breast cancer awareness. So, there are some partnerships going on between our sponsors and the Barbados Cancer Society.

“We also have Soccerama which is open at the end of this term and use that to boost the competitive interest for the girls’ competition that we are going to run in term two. And that would be made possible from the interest that is gathered from the football festival,” Ramsay explained.

While he did not want to disclose BSSFL’s partnership with the Barbados Football Association, Ramsay did express that they have been in talks with the newly installed Technical Director Emmerson Boyce and are trying to see how they can collaborate with them going forward.

The matches are expected to be played at different venues in zones one and two which are based in the north and south. Regarding sponsorship, Ramsay revealed that in keeping with the Ministry of Education’s mandate for a healthy lifestyle, while they are grateful to Coca-Cola for their continued support over the years, they are also looking in the direction of partnering with Dasani Water and Powerade.

It should be a keen battle among the schools to see who will win the school’s football title in the Under-19 age group. Combermere School are currently kings of league one but there will be a new champion crowned in league two as Barbados Vocational Training Board are not participating.

In the Under-16 age group, Queen’s College are the defending champions, Christ Church Foundation School finished runners-up and St. Francis Secondary School was third. morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb