Something has to change! - Cumberland coach calls for ISSA to address player safety after second lightning incident

Head coach of Cumberland High School, Kemar Brown, is calling on ISSA to ensure the safety of players after another student was struck by lightning in an ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup game yesterday. The student has been identified as Haile Selassie High School's Akeem Reid.

Brown said that while they may not be able to control the elements of the weather, ISSA can still take measures to prevent such incidents from recurring. This may include starting the season early or extending the length of both urban and rural competitions.

"It's either leadership consider [starting] the league earlier, as long as it doesn't clash with other leagues or, two, if not, they should actually extend the Manning and DaCosta Cup season because safety is a must," he said.

Result may fatal

Brown says that the next time an incident like this happens, the result may fatal.

"It has happened twice this year in the competition, maybe the third time a player will lose his life," he said. "This is two strikes now so we don't know what can happen [if] a third strike happens. So you have to be considerate."

The Group A fixture between Haile Selassie and visiting Cumberland High was called off after 18 minutes due to heavy rainfall which made the field waterlogged. Brown says teams and officials left the field, but Reid went back to the field to retrieve a roll of tape. It was then that the lightning struck him.

Brown, his players, Reid's teammates and school officials assisted him before he was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital, where it is reported that he is alert and responding to treatment.

This is the second incident of this kind this season as five players were struck by lightning during a match between Wolmer's Boys and Jamaica College at the Stadium East Field on September 16.

That incident led to ISSA starting all matches at 2 p.m., rather than at 3:30 p.m., as more thunderstorms caused subsequent games to be called off.