Anthony Patrick signs four-year deal to revive Innswood High schoolboy football

Anthony Patrick has been appointed head coach of football at Innswood High School and says he will draw on long years on the touchline to put together a side that can compete while giving the St Catherine institution wider recognition in national schoolboy football.

Patrick led St Catherine High School through the past season before his contract with that programme was not renewed last month. He has now signed a four-year deal with Innswood.

The coach is widely regarded for steady improvements at programmes that had struggled, and he said he welcomes the assignment at Innswood.

"It is a four-year project and I am really happy about it. It will be extended much longer than that, but I am just looking at the four years for now and trying to build from this first year from the ground up," Patrick said.

He noted that Innswood has gone a long stretch without reaching the second round of the schoolboy football competition.

Patrick said restoring the programme will demand work, but he believes the coaching group he has assembled can meet the school's aims.

"There are going to be challenges but I am looking forward to those challenges. I am really happy and grateful for this opportunity because I have a very reputable and capable assistant in Theo Brown going there with me," he said.

"Brown won the Manning Cup with Bridgeport High School in 2006 and he has also played in the Jamaica Premier League with a number of teams. He has been with me for a long time and so he is a very knowledgeable and capable individual."

At St Catherine High, Patrick guided the school to Walker Cup Knockout titles in 2019, 2021, and 2025. His team also reached the 2024 Manning Cup final, where they lost 3-1 to Kingston College.

He previously led Bridgeport High School to the Manning Cup title in 2006 and reshaped Dinthill Technical, taking that school to the finals of both the daCosta Cup and Ben Francis Cup in 2016 after more than three decades without major success.

Patrick said his appointment should help draw skilled young footballers to Innswood.

"I think me being at Innswood will help to raise the school's football profile a lot and I am sure that a lot of youngsters in this area will want to attend the school now," he said.

"I am happy for this opportunity to try and build something very special and solid there. I want to ask all the students of Innswood to come on board and support the programme and let us try to build something great here."

Patrick said lifting programmes that had lost momentum has become a defining feature of his coaching career.

"I think that when you look at me and how I go about doing things, and the schools that I have coached over the years, you look at Bridgeport, St Catherine High and, to a lesser extent, Dinthill. After Dinthill was in the wilderness for more than 35 years, I went there in 2016 and took them to the final of the daCosta Cup and the final of the Ben Francis Cup," he stated.

"I then went back to St Catherine in 2016 and turned the tables around there, so it is really about me building from the ground up to the top," Patrick underscored.

"I think when you look at Racing United, I took them from the St Catherine Division Two in 2017 to the Jamaica Premier League and I also took Naggo Head to the Premier League as well," he said.