MONTEGO BAY, St James — The shortage of qualified officials has forced the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) to make early changes to the schedule of the Rural Area daCosta Cup schoolboys competition that is set to kick off this Saturday.

George Forbes, competitions officer at ISSA, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that they have had to “make adjustments” to the original schedule.

Only 23 of the 41 games that were originally scheduled to be played on Saturday’s opening day will now be played, with the other 18 added to the schedule of Monday, September 12, a new schedule issued yesterday shows.

Two daCosta Cup games will be played at the Montego Bay Sports Complex as part of the official opening ceremony on Saturday, with defending champions St Elizabeth Technical High School against Black River at 5:00 pm and 11-time champions Cornwall College against Anchovy High at 7:00 pm.

Manning Cup champions Jamaica College will oppose St Andrew Technical High School in their opening game, set to start at 2:45 pm.

A record 88 schools have entered the competition that ends on December 3 with the final.

Meanwhile, two schools, Guys Hill High and Tacky High switched zones, ISSA also announced yesterday.

Guys Hill, who are returning to the competition after several years out, were down to play in Zone J and Tacky in Zone K, but were subsequently switched around.