Denham Town girls flourish despite ZOSO

Kimathi-Nkrumah, the coach of Denham Town High schoolgirls football team, said the upsurge in violence in the western Kingston community in the past few weeks has affected the psychology of his players coming into the final of the ISSA/Locker Room Sports Schoolgirls Football final, which took place on Monday at Prison Oval.

Denham Town were trounced 4-0 by defending champions Excelsior High, but Nkrumah had high praises for his girls because of the many social challenges they encountered en route to the final.

"We worked hard all year to get to this point. There were a lot of obstacles in the way because we live in a zone of special operations [ZOSO], where the players have to be worrying when they are coming and leaving training," Nkrumah said after the match. "It is not an excuse, but it is a very volatile environment and the school is in the centre of it."

He continued: "Kingston 14 is a rough environment and we are in the middle. We are between Trench Town and Tivoli Gardens, so we are in a very bad spot. Most of the kids live in and around these areas, so we have to get training over with early because of what is happening."

He said a member of the school's Manning Cup team was shot last week in the war.

Successful season

Nkrumah, who has been coaching at the school for the past three years, said that while he is disappointed about the result of the game, he still believes it was a successful season.

"It would be nice to win this league, but mainly I am trying to develop these young ladies into being good student-athletes, who will have character and something about themselves," Nkrumah said. "We are getting players to represent the country . We have players playing at the under-15 level, the under-20 and even have two players, who have played on the senior team."

Late last year, Denham Town was declared the country's second zone of special operations.

But despite the presence of the joint forces, violence producers are still rampant in the area.