Dear Editor,
While it’s indeed a commendable gesture that Digicel continues to sponsor the annual schools KO championship, it’s my opinion that they should not concentrate solely on attracting additional schools annually. Utilizing the current knockout format, 50% of the teams after playing their opening fixture are eliminated, and the trend continues until the semifinals, with the two losing semifinalists contesting the third place play-offs and the winners advancing to the finals.
There is basically no emphasis being placed on development of the sport, players and coaches. Given the local KO format of play presently, the nation’s representatives would be at a distinct disadvantage. A final year student debuting for his school, for example, who was well mannered, had good grades and the skills to develop further, would never be able to realize his true potential if that school was eliminated in the first round. As a consequence, since the championships are played in the 10 administrative regions a round robin/knockout format would be more conducive to offering a glimmer of hope for development.
Next year, therefore, there should be a change of format, with, for example, Region Four’s 60 teams being divided into 15 groups of 4 teams. Each team would play each other once, resulting in 15 winners advancing (not a necessity however). Since some Regions would have fewer teams, automatically fewer round-robin matches would be played. But the objective nevertheless would be to have 32 schools from the 10 Regions competing in the knockout, until it reached the two finalists and subsequent winner.
Yours faithfully,
Lester Sealey
