Camperdown end Excelsior’s nine-year run to lift ISSA girls football title

For Camperdown High School head coach Lancelot Livingston, breaking Excelsior High’s nine-year grip on the title had little to do with weather, spot kicks, or flashes of individual skill. What mattered, he said, was roughly two seasons of groundwork away from the pitch that gave his squad the concentration and confidence to see the job through.

On April 17, that patience showed in three composed penalties as Camperdown defeated Excelsior 3-0 from the spot in the ISSA/TIP Friendly Society high school girls football final at Wolmer’s Girls’ School. Neither team found the net during open play in a match played through steady rain.

“It was good for the girls,” Livingston said. “Over the years we had challenges, and those things would have come and distracted the girls, in terms of their performances. But this year, to be honest, from the beginning of the season, the girls have put in the works.

“As a matter of fact, for the last two years we really put in some good effort off the field. The girls were able to do their team work and thinks like that, so they weren’t afraid to do the physically,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

That base, he argued, counted most when injuries had upset earlier campaigns. “Over the last couple of years, we were really struggling with injuries with some key players. That has been a challenge for us, and so this year things have fallen into place and it has paid off,” Livingston said.

The season record supported his view. Camperdown dropped only one match all year, and Livingston maintained that even that loss in the opening fixture helped the unit mature. “The girls have performed quite well. I think they have lost only one game for the entire season and it was the very first game of the competition. To me, is not that they played badly, it is just that sometimes you played a game, you missed your opportunities, and the other team got maybe one or two chances and scored, and that is it. To be honest, the girls didn’t give up. Some people would just drop them head, but the girls looked at what went wrong and they try to get it right in the other game,” he explained.

Livingston said the same attitude carried into the final, even though it was the first time the group had competed in a downpour. “Going into the finals, we knew they had a chance if we went out there focused. They girls went out there, they were focused, and they didn’t give up. That game rain fell for most of the game, and that was the very first time we were playing in rain,” he noted.

With several players set to graduate, he is already thinking about reshaping the side for next year’s tournament and is not demanding a repeat. “There will be always a challenge when you are defending your title. Hopefully we get the mindset right at the beginning. We will be losing a couple of players as usually because they will be graduating. So we are going to have to reorganise ourselves and see how best we can perform. I am not going to put them under pressure, to say you have to win,” Livingston said.

He also pointed to the edge schools with strong recruitment enjoy. “Some teams that you see dominating is that because they recruited players and that make the difference between the teams. When a team is able to bring players in to replace players that are leaving, it makes a difference when others have to build from scratch.

“It may take up to two to three years to build a team, and you have to start all over again. We will look at it later down and see how best we can get the players to be focused and put in the work,” Livingston concluded.