Wolmer’s Boys’ celebration from Saturday evening’s football final triumph spilled over into the Monday morning’s devotion as school community revelled in the wake of its first hold on the ISSA/FLOW Super Cup trophy.

Wolmer’s trumped fancied Cornwall College 1-0 and took the $1-million winners’ prize, thanks to a late goal from striker Alphanso Gooden in the championship match at Sabina Park.

The Super Cup, which had its inaugural season in 2014, pits the best rural area schoolboy teams against their urban counterparts.

The school from Heroes’ Circle had to settle for semi-final finishes in 2014 and 2015 as urban area rivals Jamaica College (JC) and St George’s College ended as respective champions.

Dr Walton Small, Wolmer’s Boys’ principal and ISSA president, said landing the Super Cup crown is a major coup after previously winning three Walker Cup knock-out titles since 2012.

“For the Wolmer’s community we are extremely happy for this. We celebrated this not because we think the season is finished, but it’s been a long time and the school needed something like this,” he told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

“We’ve won the Walker Cup three times in the last five years and we needed something to go beyond. The management team looked at what we needed to go over the hump and we made some changes and the changes have reaped benefit. We lost one session [of normal school time] this morning, but just looking at the faces of the gentlemen it was worth it and I know we’ll make up for it,” Small added, while acknowledging the support of students from nearby Wolmer’s Girls’.

The Wolmer’s principal said attention now turns to the Manning Cup semi-final game versus rivals Kingston College at the National Stadium on Saturday.

“We are now looking to refocus the young men. We allowed them to celebrate today, but we must get back to the main business because the Manning Cup has been eluding us since 1994.

“Everybody is going to be gunning for it and we still want to remain underdogs because it takes the pressure off the young men,” he said.

Small is in his 10th year as Wolmer’s principal, but he is a former Cornwall College student and taught at the St James-based institution for a decade before making the move to Heroes’ Circle.

“To go up against my alma mater was something I didn’t want; however, my loyalty as the captain of this ship was with Wolmer’s and I’m happy that we won. They [Cornwall College] have congratulated Wolmer’s and I know they are good and they will come again,” Small said.

Title sponsor FLOW was also in the thick of the action throughout the gleeful devotional session.

For Carlo Redwood, FLOW’s vice-president of marketing and television, it was a win on multiple fronts.

“Every year we’ve celebrated with the winning team. We did it last year with St George’s and the year before with JC and this was Wolmer’s turn. Obviously I’m an alumnus at Wolmer’s, so it’s a special occasion for me to be here to celebrate with the entire Wolmer’s community. There is lots of vibe, excitement and people came out and the students were excited,” Redwood told the Observer.

“It was an unbelievable third year of the FLOW Super Cup and we got everything that we wanted from it this year. The passion and excitement from the fans, the turnout of the crowds, the quality of the football and that’s been the biggest thing for us.

“There was a strong, determined, consistent Wolmer’s team coming out on top of a talented, [previously] undefeated Cornwall team. It was an unbelievable final on Saturday,” Redwood continued.

Though the Super Cup trophy remains in the Corporate Area, the FLOW marketing guru said he was pleased that daCosta Cup teams had dominated the semi-final spots at a 3:1 ratio.

Cornwall College is the only daCosta Cup team to reach the Super Cup final.

“There was a rise of the daCosta Cup teams coming into the semi-finals; three teams versus one Manning Cup team. That’s what we intended, for there to be balance and not just one group dominating the other every year and we saw that this year, though again a Manning Cup team came out on top,” said Redwood, who played Under-16 and Under-19 schoolboy football for Wolmer’s Boys’ after representing Jamaica College at the Under-14 and Under-16 levels.

Vassel Reynolds, in his sixth year as Wolmer’s head coach, was winning a second title with the school at the Under-19 level.

“It’s very significant and the school would have been yearning for a major title like this, even though we would have won the Walker Cup three times over the past five years. It’s really about bragging rights between rural and urban competitions, and there was a level of exuberance this morning,” Reynolds said.

“Going into the match we looked at the statistics and there wasn’t much difference between the teams in terms of defence and attack. But one thing I know is that my defence is possibly the strongest defence… we were very confident that defensively we could have done it.

“The first 35 minutes we surprised the Cornwall team and a lot of people with the way we came out attacking. Midway the second half the Cornwall team came out and had us under a lot of pressure and forced two good saves from our keeper. Then we made a couple of changes and those were the changes that made the difference. We were re-energised and I think we put them on the back foot for the last five to 10 minutes and then we got that all-important goal,” he said.

Reynolds, who says he has been teaching at Wolmer’s for 13 ½, guided the school to the Walker Cup crown last season, and is in his second stint as head coach at the Under-19 level.

– Sanjay Myers