After a month-long delay, the 10th edition of the Milo U-18 Schools Football Tournament will kick off today with six matches to be played simultaneously across two venues.
The delay, which was a direct effect of the nation-wide teachers’ strike, affected the organisation of the respective teams for the tournament even trickling down to a change in the fixtures of the tournament. Instead of one round being played across two weekends, there will be a round completed on every weekend with 12 matches across Saturdays and Sundays for the next four weeks.
Today, the march past will be held at 11:30 am at the Ministry of Education Ground on Carifesta Avenue preceded by three matches at the same venue. Meanwhile three other matches will be contested simultaneously at the second venue, the Queen’s College Ground on Thomas Lands.
Berbicians Bush Lot Secondary will head into action at 12:30 pm at the Ministry of Education Ground against Essequibians Abrams Zuil while at 2:30 pm, Marian Academy will take on South Ruimveldt Secondary. At 4 pm, serial winners Chase’s Academic Foundation will open their campaign against North Ruimveldt Secondary.
Meanwhile over at the QC Ground, 12:30 pm will see the start of Bartica Secondary against L’Aventure Secondary followed by Yarrowkabra Secondary versus New Central Tucville at 2:30 pm. West Ruimveldt will then come up against home side Queen’s College.
In an invited comment to Stabroek Sports, Petra Organisation Co-Director Troy Mendonca who is part of the coordinating team, noted that all systems are in place for a successful staging of the competition.
“We worked feverishly over the last week to get things ready for today, the most challenging thing was to reduce the list to 24 from 38 interested teams. We’ve done a reasonably good job of getting things in order, everything is in place and we are anticipating a keen competition. I don’t think we’ve seen such excitement for a competition like this in a while, barring the Digicel tournament”, Mendonca said.
The defending champions of the tournament are Santa Rosa Secondary who will be in action until tomorrow. The Milo U-18 Schools has become one of Petra Organisation’s marquee tournaments in the Schools Football arena and has consistently produced footballers who have gone on to represent the Golden Jaguars.
The 24 participating schools are:
Region #1
Santa Rosa Secondary (Defending Champions)
Waramuri Primary Top
Region #2
Charity Secondary
Abram Zuil Secondary
Region #3
Leonora Secondary
L’Aventure Secondary
Region #4 (East Coast)
Hope Secondary
President’s College
Anns Grove Secondary
Region #4 (East Bank)
Yarrowkabra Secondary
Region #5
Bush Lot Secondary
Region #6
New Amsterdam Secondary
Region #7
Bartica Secondary
Region #10
Mackenzie High School
GEORGETOWN
Dolphin Secondary
Marian Academy
Chase Academic Foundation
Carmel Secondary
West Ruimveldt Secondary
Charlestown Secondary
East Ruimveldt Secondary
South Ruimveldt Secondary
Queen’s College
Bishops’ High School
North Ruimveldt Secondary
