Pembroke Hall High School Head Coach Keith Johnson says his players and coaching staff have been going through a difficult time over the past four weeks after one of the school’s best Manning Cup players lost one of his legs in a car crash on August 25.

Johnson said that the player, Jassie James, along with other family members, was hit down in their community of Maverley. Johnson says James, who played for the school in last year’s competition, was an active member of the team and the incident has had a significant emotional impact on the players, affecting their performance in this season’s competition. In fact, Pembroke Hall has now lost both matches in the competition, with their most recent defeat being a 1-0 loss to Ascot in their Group F encounter at Ashenheim Stadium on Thursday.

“All now we cannot recover from it,” Johnson said. “He is the little vibes man, and when you put him out there, he will do his little thing for us, and it is really, really bad the way it affected us. He is a nice little baller, and we would have loved to have him here, but he is not.”

Despite failing to secure a point so far this season, Johnson says they have not given up, as there is still a long way to go in the competition.

“We still have some players that we are trying to register, but it is a slow process, and we are trying. Hopefully, we can get them for our next match, so we are still going to keep on fighting in this competition.”

Following their victory, Ascot has moved up to second place in the group with six points. Oshawny Facey scored the lone goal for Ascot in the 62nd minute. Jamaica College leads with seven points, Excelsior is third with four points, followed by Bridgeport and Pembroke Hall, who are both on zero.

Ascot Coach Errol Andrews says he is optimistic that his team can advance to the second round based on their performances this season.

“I know that we can come out of the [group], and it’s just a matter of time,” Andrews said. “I think we were a bit lacklustre today, but we did enough to get the three points, and that was all that mattered for us.”

Andrews says they have assembled a young team this year, but he is impressed with how they have been following the coaching staff’s instructions.

“Right now, we are building a programme, and anything that we get now is a bonus because our average age is 15 years old, so the sky’s the limit for these boys,” he said.

Yesterday’s results

Pembroke Hall 0, Ascot 1

Jamaica College 2, Excelsior 2

Wolmer’s 8, St Mary’s College 0