Champions Corinaldi hunt another football, netball double in St James

Defending Insports St James primary schools football and netball champions, Corinaldi Avenue Primary, will be hunting berths in both finals when the semifinals are played tomorrow at the Montego Bay Cricket Club and Mount Salem Mini-Stadium, respectively.

In the football semifinals, Corinaldi will take on Chetwood Memorial Primary in the feature game at 11 a.m., while Barracks Road and Howard Cooke will battle in the other semifinal at 10 a.m. at the Mount Salem.

In the netball semis, Corinaldi will play Flankers at 11 a.m. after Chetwood oppose Mount Salem in the 10 a.m. game at the Montego Cricket Club.

Corinaldi, topped the preliminary stage with maximum five wins from five games, and are strong favourites to win today's match.

Football coach Ricardo Esmie noted that although the recovery from Hurricane Melissa has been challenging, he expects a fifth straight final appearance.

"It's a tremendous feeling (to be playing the semifinals) after the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa. Going into the semifinals for the fifth (straight) time, we are looking for our fifth Insport title. They are working hard and they are looking forward to get closer to the cup, which is one step away," he said.

He added: "Melissa did us bad, and we have to look past that and get back to the training ground and get these boys prepared and ready for the task."

After losing last year's semifinal to Corinaldi, Chetwood coach Jevaughn Miller, is looking to turn the tables this year.

"We played Corinaldi in the semifinals last year and unfortunately we didn't win but now we get another chance to try and make an impact so we are excited about it and ready for the challenge," he stated.

The opening game between Barracks Road and Howard Cooke, should be evenly contested. Barracks finished two points above their opponents in the preliminary table.

However, Howard Cooke were unbeaten throughout the preliminary round and will be tough to beat.

In the feature netball semifinal, Corinaldi and rivals Flankers will square off, and Corinaldi coach Omroy Kerr has set his sights on another win

"It's not going to be an easy one. Flankers are always our great rivals. We were in all finals last year so we know that they are a force to be reckoned with.

"We played them once this season and won, hopefully, we can repeat that."

However, he too noted the difficulty of reorganising his team for competition after Hurricane Melissa.

"After the passage of Hurricane Melissa, it was a really rough decision to enter as we couldn't find our players. But we gradually retrieved everyone and entered.

"We missed a few weeks of training and the girls are not playing at their usual high level but they are getting there," he added.