Award-winning Lenny ‘Teacha’ Hyde eyes return to the RSPL
The accolades keep piling up for Lenworth “Teacha” Hyde.
Just a few weeks after guiding his alma mater, Clarendon College to back-to-back wins in the ISSA DaCosta Cup and Olivier Shield, Hyde has received the award for Coach of the Year in the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) Business House Division One football competition, which concluded recently.
Hyde guided Petrojam to the title, defeating the defending champions GraceKennedy in the process. It was the same team that had stopped them at the final hurdle last year.
The former national player says that his repeated success comes from hard work and dedication to his craft.
“It’s a great feeling, good work, hard work and the dedication. When I put my mind to something I want to give it my best and in doing that I try to get the best out of the players also,” he said.
Hydel was indeed grateful for the good fortune he has been having in his coaching career over the past few years.
“It’s been working, and we just have to thank God for what’s going on with my career right now, and it shows that it’s the dedication and sacrifices that I have made,” said the former Jamaica international.
Winning the title this year wasn’t an easy task in a competition that Hyde rates as second only to the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) in Jamaica.
“It was very difficult. GraceKennedy is a quality team and I love this competition. Business House, I think it is next to the Premier League, because most of the players are from the premier league. It’s very exciting, it’s intense, it’s getting competitive and more teams are coming into the Business House pool. So it’s an exciting competition and when you win this you enjoy the moment every time,” he noted.
When quizzed about a possible return to the Premier League in a coaching capacity, the man who was linked to the Tivoli Gardens job in the summer, said he wasn’t interested in being appointed in mid-season.
“Not for now, I am not looking there right now, but maybe next season if anything comes up. If I coach in the Premier League I have to start, I don’t want to take up a team, I want to do the preseason and all of that because I want to give it my best,” he stated.
“So maybe next season, I am not throwing it under the table, and as a coach you just want to work, I don’t want to sit down and not doing anything so I occupy my time with the schoolboy, the Business House and I am trying to help out Falmouth United now in the Super League, trying to get them up to the Premier League,” said Hyde
The coach has won the Premier League as head coach of Hazard United (now Portmore United) in the 2002-03 season, Harbour View in 2006-07 and Tivoli Gardens in 2008-09.
– Dwayne Richards