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Tuesday, March 4, 2025

SSFL kicks off with St Benedict’s, Fatima clash

Co­ca-Co­la, Sports­Max re­new spon­sor­ships

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564 days ago
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Anthony Lovelace, senior brand specialist, Coca Cola, Nicholas Matthews, CEO SportsMax Ltd, Nicola Ghouralal, head, Communication and Brand National Gas Company, Merere Gonzales, SSFL president, Ronson Hackshaw, physical Education Sports Officer, Ministry of Sport and Community Development at the launch of this year’s SSFL seasaon at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

Anthony Lovelace, senior brand specialist, Coca Cola, Nicholas Matthews, CEO SportsMax Ltd, Nicola Ghouralal, head, Communication and Brand National Gas Company, Merere Gonzales, SSFL president, Ronson Hackshaw, physical Education Sports Officer, Ministry of Sport and Community Development at the launch of this year’s SSFL seasaon at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

Courtesy SportsMax

The thought of a Li­onel Mes­si, Cris­tiano Ronal­do and even a Ney­mar Jr be­ing among us in the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) is not too far-fetched, said Lisa Mor­ris-Julien, Ju­nior Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion.

Mor­ris-Julien’s com­ment came at the launch of the SS­FL sea­son at the Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel in Port-of-Spain on Thurs­day be­fore a large ap­pre­cia­tive crowd that com­prised mem­bers of the SS­FL ex­ec­u­tive, spon­sors and sev­er­al oth­er dig­ni­taries.

The league is set to kick off on Sep­tem­ber 8 with a clash of last year’s Co­ca-Co­la and Pre­mier­ship fi­nal­ists St Bene­dict’s Col­lege and Fa­ti­ma Col­lege at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo from 4 pm.

And to en­sure that all get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to see the match­es this sea­son, ei­ther via tele­vi­sion or via an App, Sports­Max, the re­gion­al sports ca­ble net­work an­nounced through its chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer (CEO) Nicholas Matthews that it has re­newed its three-year con­tract with the schools’ league.

Sports­Max is one of two spon­sors re­new­ing its con­tract with the SS­FL, with the oth­er be­ing Co­ca-Co­la, the ti­tle spon­sor of the league In­ter­Col play-offs.

This year the league will al­so boast of re­tain­ing long­stand­ing spon­sors Shell as well as the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC) who through its head of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Brand Nico­la Ghouralal, said they want to in­vest in hu­man en­er­gy.

Ghouralal said her com­pa­ny’s spon­sor­ship of the league is an in­di­ca­tion that they be­lieve in the youth.

In 2022, St Bene­dict’s de­feat­ed Fa­ti­ma 3-1 to claim the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion ti­tle, but the Fa­ti­ma boys re­turned to gain sweet re­venge in the Na­tion­al Co­ca-Co­la In­ter­Col fi­nal by win­ning 1-0 at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um.

The league rep­re­sent­ed the fu­ture of T&T on and off the field. Yes­ter­day, Mor­ris-Julien said, as a for­mer foot­baller her­self she knows of the ef­forts and ben­e­fits of the league and didn’t doubt the fact that a fu­ture star foot­baller can be in the league.

“The Sec­ondary School Foot­ball League has a lega­cy of fierce com­pe­ti­tion and friend­ly ri­val­ry. I grew up in a time with the Blue Thun­der (El Do­ra­do East) and the Green Ma­chine (St Au­gus­tine Se­nior) and it has main­tained a strong fol­low­ing from not on­ly the stu­dents but al­so from the com­mu­ni­ties of these schools. To this day, every­one can say their favourite foot­ball team,” Mor­ris-Julien said.

“In all ar­eas of youth de­vel­op­ment, you know the African proverb that it takes a vil­lage to raise a child. The Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League is in­deed a vil­lage that the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion is proud to be part of.”

Fol­low­ing on the heels of the Com­mon­wealth Youth Games, which Mor­ris-Julien said pro­vid­ed an op­por­tu­ni­ty for young ath­letes to show­case their tal­ent, she not­ed al­so that the SS­FL presents yet an­oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ty for our young ath­letes to shine and show their skills in sports.

“I grew up with Stern John, Dwight Yorke, Ja­son Scot­land, Ken­wyne Jones, and it’s not im­pos­si­ble that one day, Mes­si, Ronal­do, and or Ney­mar could be among us to­day,” Mor­ris Julien said.

“Sports as we know it, is not mere­ly a phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty but it’s a pow­er­ful tool for char­ac­ter build­ing and dis­ci­pline. It’s a plat­form that fos­ters life­long skills that ex­tends far be­yond the play­ing field. Through sports, we learn the im­por­tance of ded­i­ca­tion, we learn dis­ci­pline, time man­age­ment, and the pur­suit of ex­cel­lence.”

This year the league will fea­ture some 6,000 play­ers from 100 reg­is­tered schools in 398 teams. And among these fig­ures will be 10 teams from a new 13 and Un­der girls’ di­vi­sion that will come on stream, come Sep­tem­ber.


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