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AFTER TWENTY-FIVE years of coaching the Cornwall College (CC) football team, Dr Dean Weatherly, a highly rated coach, will take on a new challenge this year as assistant coach of Irwin High School. He says he wants to assist in developing the young talent.

Weatherly, the most successful coach at the 128-year-old CC, has won 10 titles in total. These include daCosta Cup, Ben Francis Cup, Olivia Shield and Champions Cup.

"There is a lot of talent at Irwin that needs to be moulded," Weatherly said.

"After leaving Cornwall, instead of being idle, I wanted to pass on the knowledge not only to coach Norman Foster who was also my assistant at Cornwall where we won a number of trophies. It is a matter of developing the talent in St James, which is why I went there. Also, the relationship that coach Foster and I have is a good one," he added.

Since competing in the ISSA daCosta Cup in 2005, Irwin have failed to advance past the second round. This is one main objective Weatherly and coaching staff are working towards in the upcoming 2024-2025 season.

"At Irwin right now, we are trying to leave the zone and leave with zone honours. From there, we can move on because as I said it is a young team and it is a working process," Weatherly told STAR Sports.

In the last two seasons, Zone A's Irwin and Cornwall have been in a battle to see who can finish atop the group. Irwin topped the group in 2022 and Cornwall in 2023.

After Steve Bucknor left in 1992, Weatherly took over CC at the start of the season. He went on to win four of 12 daCosta Cup finals in (1995, 2000, 2001 and 2016). He also won four of the seven Ben Francis KO finals in (1995, 2000, 2001 and 2003). Finally, he copped the Olivier Shield in 2001 and the Champions Cup in 2018.

Weatherly coached the Montego Bay United FC that won the 2013-2014 Jamaica Premier League title with a 5-2 victory over Waterhouse in the final at the National Stadium.

According to Weatherly, his time with CC ended when he was not included in the management's future plans for the football programme .

"The management of CC said they wanted a new direction for the programme and it doesn't seem like I was able to do that so I just vacated that situation," Weatherly said.

Irwin will kick off their campaign in Zone A alongside Cornwall College, Green Pond High, Herbert Morrison Technical High, Maldon High and St James High.