CATHERINE HALL, St James — Both coaches — St Elizabeth Technical High School’s (STETHS’) Omar Wedderburn and Clarendon College’s Patrick ‘Jackie’ Walters — will have scores to settle in today’s 60th ISSA/LIME daCosta Cup schoolboy football final at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, set to start at 4:00 pm.

Two years ago, a Glenmuir High team led by Walters upset STETHS in the final at the same venue reducing Wedderburn to tears, but the STETHS coach had the last laugh earlier this season when they beat Clarendon College in the semi-finals of the Ben Francis Knockout.

Wedderburn rose from crying his eyes out for a week in 2012 to climbing on top of the dug out last year as his team routed over-matched Garvey Maceo High in the final and expected to add their fourth title today.

Clarendon College, who won the last of their six titles in 1998, were tipped by many at the start of the season as the team to beat in rural area football, but stumbled in the semi-finals of the Ben Francis KO, which STETHS won for a fifth straight time.

Both coaches agree, however, that the daCosta Cup is the important trophy to win, the winner of which will face Jamaica College in the Olivier Shield play-off.

Qualifying for the daCosta cup finals, Walters says, “has erased everything else and we think we have a good chance to win this”.

Wedderburn, whose team is unbeaten all season in the daCosta Cup, said: “This is the match that all teams want to play.”

While Clarendon College looked in championship form turning back a tough Glenmuir High in their Clarendon derby game in the semi-finals 2-1, STETHS struggled to beat Dinthill Technical 1-0 in a listless game.

Today, STETHS could be without two influential players, Donjay Smith, who will be out due to yellow card accumulation, while Javoney Brown is doubtful with an ankle injury that he again aggravated last week.

Despite that and a marked decline in goal-scoring, Wedderburn is not worried about his team’s form going into today’s game. “We did enough to win last week. It’s not every game you are going to play the game you want, but what is important is that we are in the final so we are not stressing anything.”

The possible absence of the two players, Wedderburn noted, may not be that crucial in the end. “We have played games without Donjay earlier in the season and have won; we have a team and we have players who will be able to come into any situation we need them to,” he said.

Neither Smith nor Brown had been scoring lately and that job may fall to Travar McCollough, who got the winner in the Ben Francis KO final, while Shawn Genus scored the winner against Dinthill on Saturday.

Walters is expecting another battle against STETHS and while he says he expects his team will win, says he does not see it going all the way to penalties this time.

“Clarendon College is a better team this time than the team that played in the Ben Francis semis… based on training, I can see that they are better now and if everything works out it will be a successful afternoon for us,” said the veteran coach.

Walters — who is in his 21st championship final between Corporate Area and rural-based schools and who will be seeking his ninth daCosta Cup title — thinks his experience and guile will also serve his team well.

Xhane Reid, who played on the Glenmuir High team in 2012, will lead the team that will also include Siegel Knight, Creggton Charlton and Kemoy Carruthers. They will be part of the offensive thrust.