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Kingston High School, like many other non-traditional high schools, has lost many of its student athletes to more traditional ones, as it does not have the reputation to keep a hold of these youngsters seeking what they consider a better opportunity to play sports.

The school has played three matches so far in Group F of this season's ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup competition and have lost all three. In these games, they have conceded 19 goals and scored just once.

In their last game, on Monday, the Wayne Johnson-coached team suffered an 8-0 defeat to defending champions Jamaica College and their participation in the competition appears even more daunting with the second half of the first round just getting under way.

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COMPETITIVE TEAM

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Johnson insisted he had a relatively competitive team prior to the start of the season, but has now revealed that seven of his first team regulars were snatched by a number of schools, including Jamaica College (JC), Clarendon College, Kingston College and Mona High School. He said that this has left him to start from scratch in September. One of these players is young prospect Phillando Wing, who has moved to JC.

"At the beginning of the season, I lost some players, so I had to go back into the school and train some youths that weren't training over the summer, so that is what is killing us now. The players are tired, they cannot last the minutes like other teams, so the minutes take a toll on them," he said.

"But the main thing is that schools are offering them things that we don't have. But we are looking at ways to revive the team by getting some more IDs sorted out and get in some more players. Today (Monday) we lost 8-0, but it won't be that way next game," he insisted.

Johnson will look to keep the team focused and together for the remainder of the season, but reasoned that he really has to plan for next year. "We have one more game in the first round, and we are hoping we can get something out of the match. We want to keep them focus and keep them healthy, because we are really looking at next year for this team to be really ready," he said.