Champions Jamaica College (JC) were left beaming with confidence after being graced by the newly Italian-designed FLOW Super Cup, as quad-play telecommunications provider FLOW continued its promotional tour at Old Hope Road yesterday.

The campaign is being used as a build-up to the second staging of the lucrative tournament scheduled for October 24 to November 14 which will feature the top eight teams from the Manning Cup and another eight from the daCosta cup competition.

JC rose to supremacy in the inaugural tournament last year with a 2-0 win over surprised finalist Holy Trinity, after marching past rural area giants Cornwall College and St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), respectively, on their way to the final.

JC Principal Ruel Reid believes that the unveiling of the glorious cup will be added motivation for his troops as they seek to live up to their tagline ‘Jamaica College Number One’.

“We won the inaugural Super Cup last year, we are consecutive winners of the Manning Cup, so we are defending champions of all the major cups this year. And JC, being the number one champion, we intend always to win,” Reid declared.

“It (the trophy) has really motivated us; it is a new one again and we want to be pioneers and win the new one this year again. So I think everybody is excited (and) we like to win as all our taglines state ‘Jamaica College is number one’ and we like to be number one in everything,” he added.

Even though the team boasts individual flair and experience in striker Ronaldo Brown, utility players Dominic Purcell, Oquin Robinson and Norman Campbell, Reid pointed out that their reign is driven by a team effort.

“We have quite a bit of players, [but] we don’t depend on any one player really; the tradition of Jamaica College is always to be number one in any competition. I believe we will win this year again, we like winning, we work hard, we play hard and we always play to win,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Stephen Miller, Sponsorship Manager at Flow was pleased with the reception from the Manning and Super Cup champions.

“It is always going to be a new challenge introducing a new brand to any community, any setting, and I thought the boys were extremely receptive,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“The atmosphere was electric as it usuallyat Jamaica College and the students and administrators were very excited about it. Obviously, JC being the champion, is a very confident and believe that the trophy is already at home at Hope Road,” he continued.

The $2.5 million tournament will pit the winners of the eight daCosta Cup inter-zone rounds against the eight zone winners in the Manning Cup in a knock-out format with games being played at three venues across the island — Sabina Park and National Stadium in Kingston and the Montego Bay Sports Complex.

The winners will walk away with $1 million as they did last year, but there would be more incentives for teams taking part this season.

In addition to the full kits, including football boots this year, each team will get $25,000 for taking part in the first round; teams advancing to the quarter-finals will get an additional $50,000, while the four semi-finalists will each earn another $100,000.

The two finalists will get $200,000 with the winner getting an additional $625,000, which will add up to the million-dollar prize and a brand new trophy.

This year the losing semi-finalists will share $275,000 between them, while the leading scorer will receive a $100,000 scholarship.

The draw for the first round will be held on Thursday, October 22, with the competition kicking off two days later with triple headers in Montego Bay and Kingston.

The tour will next stop at St George’s College sometime next week.