Eight school teams to do battle

THE fourth edition of the Schools Football League, sponsored by LIMACOL, is set to begin on Sunday with eight teams vying for top honors.
The tournament, which will be for a first prize of 300,000 dollars towards a project for the winning school, will also see the top three teams advancing to the end-of-year goodwill tournament.

This is according to Troy Mendonca, co-director of the Petra organization, which is the organisers of the 2023 edition of the league tournament as well as its successor, the goodwill series.

He said “Eight teams advanced from the MILO schools football tournament which we used as a qualification tournament for this league. We also want to thank the new GPC who came onboard through the Limacol brand to sponsor this tournament.”

$150,000 dollars is on offer for the second-place team with $100,000 for third and $50,000 for fourth, as well as prizes for the MVP, leading goal scorer and others.
Competitions Director of the Guyana Football Federation, Troy Peters, hailed the progress of the Petra organization, saying “Petra continues to be a trail blazer in the development of schools’ football.”

He added the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) continues to laud agencies that are investing in schools’ football.
Deputy Chief Education Officer, Amerindian and Hinterland Education Development, Marti DeSouza contended that, “Looking at the teams, we see that it is indeed the best of the best. It simply tells us that we are not only focusing on the schools on the coast but in the hinterland as well.”

Deputy Director of Sport, Franklyn Wilson, drew examples from then work that the Petra organization had done, citing one of the feeder programmes’ stars in Omari Glasgow.
He added that programmes, like the LIMACOL league, are important in the development of the sport.

Carmel Secondary, East Ruimveldt, Ann’s Grove, Santa Rosa, Mc Kenzie High, Christianburg/Wismar Secondary, Chases Academy and Bartica Secondary are the teams in the tournament.

Games are set to begin on October 29 beginning with Christianburg and Bartica from 12:00 at the Ministry of Education ground.

From 13:30 hours, Carmel Secondary plays Mackenzie High school, East Ruimveldt and Chases Academy battle from 15:00hrs and Ann’s Grove and Santa Rosa oppose each other at 16:30hrs.

Each team will face each other once in the competition.