DAVID Sanguinetti, head coach of the Wolmer’s Boys’ tennis programme, endured a ‘proud moment’ when the school lifted two of three titles at the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) National High Schools Tennis Championship.

“It was indeed a proud moment for me watching the Wolmer’s Boys’ team compete at the National High Schools Tennis competition. The school entered three teams in the event, Under-19, Under-16 and Under-14 and they all made it to the finals, a first for the school,” Sanguinetti pointed out.

Wolmer’s Boys’ won the Under-14 title by beating Hillel Academy 2-1 in the final and the Heroes’ Circle-based institution also claimed the Under-19 crown, when they registered a 4-1 victory over traditional rivals Jamaica College (JC) in the final.

However, Campion College denied Wolmer’s the triple, when they won the boys’ Under-16 final 3-0.

“The Under-14 team that won the title for the first time was made up of players with no national ranking (Joshua Haye, Matthew Wright, Nickoli Morgan and Kajuan Haughton),” Sanguinetti analysed. “They won the event that included highly ranked national players; this was truly an outstanding performance by the team. The boys’ 16s reached the finals for the first time in 12 years, but they were beaten by a Campion team made up of national players.”

The curtains came down on the ISSA National High School Tennis competition at the Eric Bell Tennis Centre on Saturday and in girls’ action, two of the three winners were claiming the title for the first time.

In the Girls’ Under-14 category, first-time entrants Montego Bay High created quite a stir with a historic 2-0 win over Immaculate Conception High, who never had a good finals outing.

The Manor Park-based institution suffered a second loss in the finals, when they were beaten 3-1 by AISK in the battle for the Under-16 crown. In the process, AISK went on to claim their first Under-16 Girls’ title.

In the other Girl’s final, Hillel defeated Campion College 4-2 to lift the prestigious Under-19 title.

The tennis Jamaica-staged event was run at a high standard which included officials to monitor the matches and a nurse on hand.

Present at the prize-giving was Tennis Jamaica president, Aswad Morgan, and Ryan Foster, CEO of the Jamaica Olympic Association, who assisted in handing out the awards.

Thirty-four (34) teams from 12 schools with over 200 players, participated in the event, which also included, for the first time, a consolation element that guaranteed first-round losers at least two matches.

AISK won the Under-14 consolation events beating B-14 Ardenne 2-1 and Mount Alvernia (3-0) in the respectiove boys’ and girl’s categories. Among the 16s, St George’s beat Ardenne 3-1 in boys’ play and Campion College topped Mount Alvernia’s girls 3-1. Campion’s boys beat AISK 4-1, while Immaculate romped to a 7-0 win over Ardenne in the girls’ Under-19 action.

Participating schools were MoBay High, Mount Alvernia High, Campion College, Hillel, St Andrew High for Girls, Ardenne High, AISK, Immaculate Conception High, St. George’s College, JC, Wolmer’s Boys’ and first-time entrants Victory Academy.

St James’ Mount Alvernia and Victory Academy won the respective Girl’s and Boys’ Most Discipline Awards.