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Fri, Mar

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Reigning Girls Intercol champions St Augustine Secondary will be looking for their second clean sweep of the football season when they face Point Fortin in the BG T&T First Citizens Intercol National Final tomorrow at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo, at 3pm.

St Augustine are hoping to continue their impressive run after winning the East Zone title and the Big Four crown.

Anselm Wright, Director of Football at St Augustine, expressed confidence in the team and believes that they win with strong support from the school community.

“We are quite confident, considering that we are the defending champions, having won all the competitions so far this year. We already won the league and the Big Four so we are looking to win the Intercol,” he stated.

Wright showered the team’s coach, Desiree Sarjeant, with praise for getting the girls to this point and says she has them prepared and focussed. He also commended parents of the girls for their continued support and being present at all the matches.

“She is an excellent coach, she works well with the team. She has the girls well disciplined, well prepared for the game and well focussed on their school work.”

He went on to mention that the school is already grooming the under 15 players to take the spots of the senior players who will be leaving at the end of the school year.

“The school has a football programme, it’s not that we just play football for competition. There is an all-round programme involving the rudiments of the game and encouraging persons to play the game, not just for competition,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Point Fortin East are also confident about facing St Augustine for the second time this year.

Point Fortin missed out on the final of the Big-Four Championships after falling to St Augustine 4-1 and will be looking to seek revenge.

Ainsley Gopaul, Principal and past student of Point Fortin who represented the school at both football and cricket, expressed joy and excitement about his team making it to the Intercol final and is confident about their chances.

“We are extremely elated, but we expected it because we were grooming a team for the longest while and we also have a lot of good players,” he declared.

“I think this team will be better prepared (for the final). We are looking to be very optimistic because it’s the first time the girls played out of the zone on a big field and it was an experience in itself and I think they would be better prepared now for this final — physically, mentally and in terms of strategy wise.”

He said their coach Chris Bailey and management did a good job with getting the team to gel.

“The coach’s efforts are excellent, more so the input the manager has made to the team. Part of the strength of the team is getting them to bond as a unit and bringing them together,” he added.

Gopaul is already looking forward to next year’s tournament since the lineup would be almost the same for the next two years.

“It’s a very young team. Even from the beginning of the season, even when they played St Augustine to now, we are a far better team because it’s students in forms two, three, four and day by day, match by match, they are improving. So next year would be the same team and they will be more experienced and developed.” he concluded.