Back in the 1970s, you only had two competitions – Major League for adults and under-16.
You were either good enough or you weren’t; “Go and look a job like everyone else” as football was a pastime for those who loved it and played consistently after work and school, before it gets dark with no street lights.
Spotting talent from early was important, and the better players would be allowed to play as all others sat by and watched, cheered and collected balls behind the goals or flying off the field for a precious one kick to return.
The bigger boys would tout the more talented players while carrying them to play and teaching them a thing or two; Others watched in awe. Sponsors Desnoes & Geddes (D&G) gave each club 16 basic, mono-coloured cloth shorts, white t-shirts and plain socks as you bought your cheap ‘cuptie’ canvas and rubber boots or numbered instruction boots from Woolworth’s on Kings Street. No shin pads, and you all had to wear jockstraps for athletic support.
Those were the days. We first reached the 1968 finals, losing to Pembroke Hall but bouncing back to win for the first time, undefeated, in 1972. That lit the fire that still burns today.
HVFC organised its annual general meeting and elected officers to formally start a football club at the Harbour View Primary school on March 4th, 1974. It was facilitated by the original Principal, the late Mr Neville Peart.
42 years of football later, HVFC has four established youths teams, including under-13/14, under-15, under-17 & under-20. A number of our youth footballers eventually graduate to our senior team and other teams in the top flight league. Also, on Saturday mornings we host a youth football clinic for boys and girls ages 4 – 12, teaching them the FUNdamentals of the beautiful game. We have lifted some fifty-four(54) Championship titles in Jamaica, the Caribbean and North America, possibly the most by any football club in the Caribbean; Eighteen (18) of them include the most prestigious Senior Competitions (Jamaican National Premier League: 4 , JFF Islandwide Champions Cup: 4, KSAFA Jackie Bell Knockout: 6, CFU Club Championships League: 2, CONCACAF Club Championships Cup and League: 2).
The Future:
We look forward with sincere optimism that we can formalize an agreement very soon with an international football academy to increase our quality, quantity and the depth of our development programme in a structured way, with adequate resources to positively impact the next generation of 5-15 year olds, creating a broader base of higher level of performance skill sets to breakdown barriers like never before, locally, regionally and internationally.
With Gods speed.
Featured Photo: Under-16’s Ricardo ‘Bibi’ Gardner & Kirk ‘Scarry’ Williams (1993)