Features

St Catherine defeat rival St. Jago

By WANDEKA GAYLE - Staff Reporter
Photo :Ricardo Makyn
FROM LEFT: Nicholos Burrell, Seon Lewis, Phoebe Leslie and Donald Smith of the St. Catherine High School team.

ST. CATHERINE HIGH School defeated their long-time rivals, the 13th seed school St. Jago High, in a crushing 20-point victory when 2005 TVJ's Schools' Challenge Quiz competition continued last night. The final score read 43-23.

"They defeated us twice in former years, once when we went to the finals, but now we have beaten them," coach of the winning team Winston Henry told THE STAR.

Before the match started, THE STAR news team overheard one member of the St. Jago team predicting a victory. However, St. Catherine High proved the prediction faulty.

Henry said that while jubilant, the team should not rest on their achievement as they had a long way to go.

The St. Jago team on the other hand, was so shocked, they could hardly speak. A few of them were on the verge of tears.

Shaken

"We cannot talk right now because we would have to sit and watch this match to see what went wrong," one of the team members ventured. The captain, Vanetta Ranger, was so shaken she turned away and apologised for not being able to respond.

The riveting match kicked off to a good start and St. Jago were the early, 10-8, leaders. However, the studio audience was on the edge of their seats when at the end of the minute segment, both teams locked scores on 27 points.

What propelled the the winning team to victory was the buzzer segment. Every time they hit the buzzer in this segment, their answer was correct.

However, their opponents were making a downward spiral each time they sounded their buzzer. Although there were times when they redeemed themselves such as when they identified the Isley Brothers and gave the correct name of a literature book, they would lose the points shortly after.

The sounding of the final bell caused the St. Catherine team to explode in resounding applause. Their counterparts, however, were the stark opposite, seemingly frozen in place.

Frank Weise, St. Jago's coach, said that he felt the team lost focus when it really mattered. "This is not how they normally played and I think the mere fact that they lost those first two in the buzzer section, set off a mind trend and it affected them psychologically," he said. "This is the first time St. Jago were knocked out of the first round."

St. Jago team members: Vanetta Ranger, Patrick Martin, Ralston McKenzie and Shane Edwards

St. Catherine team members: Donald Smith, Phoebe Leslie, Nicholas Burrell, and Seon Lewis.