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Garvey Maceo hoping to finish strong
April 16, 2025
Standing as one of the top schools in the ISSA TIP Friendly Society Schoolgirls football competition, Garvey Maceo High's head coach Lester Hibbert said it is important for his players to finish strong in their third-place match today at Stadium East.
Garvey Maceo will take on Merl Grove in the opening game of a double header at 2 p.m., after which, Excelsior will face off against Holmwood Technical in the final set to kickoff at 4:15pm.
For the third season in a row, Garvey Maceo had advanced to the semifinals of the schoolgirl competition and established themselves as one of the top schools in Jamaica.
Despite the achievement, Hibbert also explained it is the third year in a row they had failed to advance to the final after being defeated by Excelsior, the eight-time defending champions.
Their most recent final appearance came in 2022 where they were also defeated by Excelsior.
"It is the third year this has happened to us. We lost the first season, the second season and now the third season losing to the same team," Hibbert said after his team's defeat in the semifinals.
"For years now, Excelsior have had a good programme so for that, we have to give them credit because they are consistent in what they are doing."
Despite the defeats, Hibbert explained it is a positive showing for the school's programme as Garvey Maceo have consistently been among the top four of the competition on a yearly basis.
"We also have to give thanks because out of so many teams, we are among the top four in the country," he explained.
"It is kind of difficult to accept knowing that these girls are humans and they have feelings. They are emotional about it but we have to keep them together and keeping them rooted and ready."
He believes the goal will be on improving their programme to be able to finally claim the elusive title.
He has a lot of confidence in the programme's future as he said the team will be retaining a majority of the players for next year.
"It will all come down to how we recruit as well because we will only be losing one player so all these girls will be coming back next year. So next year we will back again," he said.
