Reign­ing cham­pi­on team Na­pari­ma Col­lege will be­gin the de­fence of its ti­tles, the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion, South Zone In­ter­col and the Na­tion­al In­ter­col ti­tle, on Wednes­day when the team hosts St Mary's Col­lege at its home ground at Lewis Street, San Fer­nan­do from 3:30 pm.

Un­der coach An­gus Eve, a for­mer na­tion­al stand­out, the team has be­come a dom­i­nant force among its peers in the schools, and on Sat­ur­day, the boys that sport the Blue and white strips, sent a stern warn­ing to all op­po­nents by claim­ing the open­ing Dig­i­cel Cup by beat­ing arch-ri­vals Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege of San Fer­nan­do 5-4 in a penal­ty shoot-out, af­ter a 1-1 stale­mate.

This sea­son the south­ern­ers will be mi­nus three of the play­ers from their team that played last year, and they may fan­cy their chances against a re­build­ing CIC out­fit. The 'Saints' as they are pop­u­lar­ly called have al­so made sev­er­al key changes to their coach­ing staff, bring­ing in for­mer na­tion­al de­fen­sive mid­field­er Ker­ry Jamer­son as their head coach. But it would be an up­hill task for Jamer­son's men who will be re­quired to be firm in the back­line to cope with the Naps lethal at­tack­ing force.

At Spey­side in To­ba­go, the home team will be up against Mal­ick Sec­ondary, a team that has been out of the top flight schools foot­ball for some years, due main­ly to changes in the school sys­tem, a Dean at the school said last year. How­ev­er, the team's re­turn was met with huge ex­cite­ment by past and present play­ers, mem­bers of the school and mem­bers of the Mor­vant/Laven­tille com­mu­ni­ty, for whom the school has been a sense of pride.

Mean­while, San Juan North Sec­ondary, last year's East Zone In­ter­col win­ners and Na­tion­al In­ter­col run­ner-up, will have a date with Pleas­antville Sec­ondary which is al­so mak­ing a re­turn to the SS­FL top flight, while Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege (San Fer­nan­do) will vis­it Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka at the team's home ground in Mar­aval. All match­es be­gin at 3:30 pm. This year the League will fea­ture a record num­ber of spon­sors, as Dig­i­cel, First Cit­i­zens Bank and Shell T&T (Pre­mier Di­vi­sion spon­sors), Co­ca-Co­la (In­ter­col spon­sor), Mal­ta Carib and spon­sor/broad­cast­er Sports­Max, all join­ing to mak­er the League the fastest-ris­ing high school foot­ball com­pe­ti­tion in the Caribbean.

Wedne­day's SS­FL Match­es

San Juan North Sec­ondary - Pleas­antville Sec­ondary @San Juan

St. Bene­dict’s Col­lege - Trin­i­ty East @Man­nie Ramjohn

Spey­side Sec­ondary - Mal­ick Sec­ondary @Spey­side

Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka - Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege @Trin­i­ty Mo­ka

East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary - Queens Roy­al Col­lege @Fa­ti­ma

St. Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary - St. An­tho­ny’s Col­lege @St Au­gus­tine

Na­pari­ma Col­lege - St. Mary’s Col­lege @ Lewis Street

Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary – BYE