VERE, Clarendon — In years past, Vere Technical were the standard bearer for schoolboy football in this south-eastern Clarendon community.

In fact, the Hayes-based institution was the exemplar for the entire parish, winning nine daCosta Cup titles between 1965 and 1980. However, since the turn of the 21st century Vere Tech have fallen from grace — leaving a vacancy for a standout schoolboy team from the Vere plains.

With only two other high schools situated here, the onus rested on Bustamante High, located in Lionel Town, and their neighbours further south in Race Course, Kemps Hills High.

Since making their daCosta Cup debuts, both schools have produced top talents, but no sooner than they start to blossom did the more prominent schools started to pick them apart. Of the two, however, Kemps Hill have somehow managed to stay afloat — producing teams good enough to rival Glenmuir High and Garvey Maceo in the preliminary round, admittedly without much success until they were shifted from Zone M to the newly created Zone N, a few seasons ago.

Since that time, Kemps Hill have never failed to qualify for the Inter-zone. And while they still have a very long way to go before they can truly consider themselves heirs to the Vere Tech throne, the community of Race Course is swelling with pride, for when the daCosta Cup quarter-finals kick off today it is Kemps Kill who will be flying the flag for the football-crazed populace in the south-east of Clarendon.

“It is like a new-found love for the community,” said coach Dwight Smith. “Usually the people from down this side would support a Garvey, or whichever school doing well at that particular time. You can see the pride on them face now that they have a school from the community doing well.”

Kemps Hill will play alongside two former champions, Dinthill Technical and Godfrey Stewart High, plus emerging force Manchester High, in Zone Q of the quarter-finals — opening their scheduled match against Godfrey Stewart at Frome Sports Complex. And while this might be their first trip to the daCosta Cup quarter-finals, they are no strangers to major battles.

They qualified for the last two Ben Francis Knockout quarter-finals, knocked out by eventual champions St Elizabeth Technical High School last year.

Now that it is becoming something of a habit, Smith said the eventual aim is to challenge for major honours. “We want to be consistent,” he said. “We have a good youth programme, so we are trying to build on that because we want to become a force within schoolboy football.”

But the question still lingers: How exactly did Kemps Hill, one of the feeder schools in Clarendon, rise to their current status as one of the emerging teams — and perhaps a model for schools of similar stature — in central Jamaica?

“We just decided that we not going to be anymore feeder school,” said Smith. “Down this side, producing the players is not a problem because the primary schools in the area are always doing well. The problem was that the more prominent high schools usually take them away from us.

“But for the past few years we decided that we are going to build a programme. We convinced the players that we can do right here at Kemps Hill, and now we are starting to see some results, we just have to continue on the same path.”