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‘Tegat’ Davis confident in Rusea’s chances - Cambridge’s Dennis looking to shake underdog tag
September 10, 2024
ELEVEN-time champions Rusea's High School will begin their pursuit of the ISSA/WATA daCosta title in Zone B against Cambridge High School at 3.30 p.m. today at the Collin Miller Sports Complex in Lucea.
Paul 'Tegat' Davis, coach of Rusea's High, has a rebuilding team that had a short preseason and training time, but expects a win in their first game of the season.
"We are going to take this game very cautiously but very seriously because we want to win our first game. The expectation is to get a win today. I don't know anything about Cambridge, that is why I try to spend time on the players for the month that we had together," Davis told STAR Sports.
"Mostly we will have some 13 and 14-year-old guys and some senior players who will be playing. We will do the best we can to keep it competitive. The sky's the limit," Davis added.
Meanwhile, Garrett Dennis, coach of Cambridge High School, said naysayers may consider the team as underdogs, but they are more competitive and the expectations are high.
"I think we had a wonderful preseason. The boys went through some physical and technical training. The expectations leading up to the game are high and as a unit our job is to go to Lucea and perform. Once we do that, we will get something positive from that game," Dennis said.
"We are a team in transition. Last year we were a comeback team that fell short in the daCosta Cup and the under-16. We had some indiscipline, so this time around we expect to represent and represent better than last year," he added.
Dennis was the assistant coach for Cambridge last season when the team finished without a point after losing all their games in the first round. Rusea's beat them twice, 6-1 in the opening match at Cambridge and 4-0 in Lucea.
Cambridge, no stranger to finishing at the bottom of Zone B, have never beaten Rusea's since competing in the daCosta Cup in 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018 and 2023. They have failed to advance past the first round on every occasion.
Meanwhile, Rusea's, a former kingpin, are second only in daCosta Cup wins to Cornwall College with 12 titles. The Hanover-based school won its first daCosta Cup in 1984, and, over the years, has produced some well-known players in Jamaica's football, including Aaron Lawrence, Mark 'Hagler' Wilson, Stephen 'Shorty' Malcolm, Caple Donaldson, Michael Graham and Donald Hewitt from the golden era of the mid-1980s, along with others who came later, such as Easton 'Fuma' Smith, Deshane Beckford and Brian 'Rambo' Brown, most of whom went on to represent Jamaica.
The 'Russians' have been experiencing a barren patch in their title quest in recent years and last won the daCosta Cup in 2017, when they defeated Clarendon College, who were defending champions at the time.
Since then, Rusea's have failed to advance past the second round.
Also playing in Zone B today are: Knockalva Technical vs Anchovy High at Knockalva and Green Island High vs Frome Technical at Green Island.
