Spaldings High at preseason training: At left is Jovan Powell, one of the key members of the squad. - file

Regardless of what happens in tomorrow's ISSA/-Digicel/Pepsi daCosta Cup final at Jarrett Park between hometown favourites St James High and Spaldings High, many will still continue to discuss how a lot has changed as far as contenders are concerned.

The final brings together two little known schools. There will be no cheers for familiar names like Rusea's High, Cornwall College, Glenmuir High, Clarendon College and of late Frome Technical.

In fact, with St James having already won the Ben Francis KO final last month, the question most frequently asked now is just who are Spaldings?

The truth is before 2008, the school almost never existed on the radar as far as a reputation in sport let alone football is concerned. Spaldings' presence in the biggest rural team sport final is testimony to the emergence in the last decade of a growing band of non-traditional high schools.

Manchester support base

In the recent semi-final match-up at St Elizabeth Technical (STETHS) with Lennon, not many neutral fans realised that two Clarendon schools were actually involved.

Geographically, Spaldings High School is the parish of Clarendon. The school's support base is, however, in nearby Manchester.

Significantly, given its proximity to Manchester, Spaldings have never been grouped with teams in a Clarendon-based zone whether at the junior or senior level in any Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) run competition. In fact, Lennon's spectators by their reaction seem not to even acknowledge their counterparts at Spaldings as 'parishmates,' with large sections in the main stand hailing them as "Manchester".

Junior Brown, head of the physical education department at Spaldings, acknowledges the surprise reaction to his school's place in such a prestigious final.

"The school is mostly geared to its educational programme but we realise we have enough students that like to play football, so we try to channel them in that area."

The school is not a factor in, for example, Boys and Girls championships and is generally considered one of the 'beating sticks' whenever it contests Headley Cup cricket. In fact, this year, for the first time, the school will be represented in the Under-16 Cricket Competition. The school's playing field is far from suitable to host games and its preliminary home games are played 15 miles away at Brooks Park.

Brown is confident his school has arrived and deserves to be taken seriously.

"We feel that having reached the final, we can win. This team is the product of a three-year programme," he revealed.

Mastermind

The mastermind seems to be coach Courtney Jackson, who unfortunately was suspended from that role by ISSA's disciplinary committee following an incident during a preliminary game at Brooks Park.

A former long-time coach of Edwin Allen, Jackson's role at Spaldings had been considered pivotal, as he led them earlier this year to the rural Under-16 championship before losing out to Kingston College in the all-island final. Eight players of the current squad were members of their victorious Under-16 team.

Despite Jackson's active upfront absence from the team due to a one-year ban, assistant coach Andre Swaby told STAR SPORTS that the team has stayed focused and is inspired to continue its historic performance.

"You get the impression that they are are more motivated to win because of what happened to the coach," he said.

Ample evidence of this was seen when seconds after the whistle was blown in their 2-1 semi-final win over Lennon, the entire team, as if ignited by a special signal, ran in chorus towards the perimeter fence where Jackson stood while watching the game. Tomorrow there are likely to be wild celebrations if they win in the lions' den at Jarrett Park.