{"id":2865,"date":"2026-10-03T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/uncategorized\/walker-cup-wolmers-boys-excelsior-preview-20261003\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T12:00:00","slug":"walker-cup-wolmers-boys-excelsior-preview-20261003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/trust-sports\/walker-cup-wolmers-boys-excelsior-preview-20261003\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle on for spots in Walker Cup last four"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Gregory Bryce\/Staff Reporter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

October 3, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kingston
Kingston Technical High School\u2019s Richard West (left) tries to get close to Excelsior High School\u2019s Aldeano Walters during their Walker Cup football encounter at Excelsior High\u2019s playing field on September 26. Photo – Ricardo Makyn Jamaica Gleaner, October 3, 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Excelsior
Excelsior High coach Keon Broderick. Photo – Ricardo Makyn Jamaica Gleaner, October 3, 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wolmer\u2019s Boys head coach Haron Martin said his players will not shy away from facing reigning Manning Cup champions Excelsior High when they square off in the ISSA Walker Cup quarterfinals today at Stadium East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolmer\u2019s oppose Excelsior in the feature match of a double-header at 4:30 p.m., with Jamaica College (JC) taking on Eltham High in the opening game at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin said it will be an important clash for the boys from Heroes Circle and a strong test of where they stand among the competition\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that a fixture against the reigning Manning Cup champions is the type of pressure his players must handle if they want to lift the Walker Cup title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big game for us because we\u2019re going up against, of course, the Manning Cup champions,\u201d Martin said before the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are the games that we really look forward to. These are games, of course, you cannot shy away from. If you want to be champions, these are the type of games you have to play and the teams you have to play against.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin said his players have already proven they can get past schoolboy football champions after eliminating the defending Walker Cup champions St Catherine High in the previous round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolmer\u2019s clipped St Catherine 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin said he is also familiar with Excelsior\u2019s squad having previous faced them in both the U14 and U16 competitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoing up against Excelsior, we\u2019re expecting a tough game,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have had a few match-ups in the U14s and U16s before, so both teams are familiar with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin continued, \u201cBut we are confident, I mean, we have knocked out the Walker Cup champions. Of course, we\u2019re now coming up against the Manning Cup champions and we\u2019re looking to qualify for the semifinals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolmer\u2019s will look to captain and national U17 representative Romie Henry to lead the team from midfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTHING TO PROVE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Excelsior, they are led by head coach Keon Broderick who insisted his players have nothing to prove after their Manning Cup triumph last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excelsior opened their Walker Cup campaign with a 7-0 drubbing of Kingston Technical but did not play in the second round as their opponents, Waterford High, conceded the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broderick said Excelsior\u2019s win over Kingston Tech was not a statement of intent, but rather their ambitions to execute well each game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not here to send any statement to any team. We\u2019re just here to play good football and we\u2019re here to give of our best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce our best is good enough, then we\u2019ll do what we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excelsior\u2019s ambitions for the semifinals will largely be helped by striker Habbie Mohamed, who bagged a hat trick in their opening win against Kingston Tech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also in action, Vauxhall High and Mona High will open a double-header at the Drewsland Mini Stadium in a battle of the Butlers, with kick off set for 2 p.m. Craig Butler is head coach of Mona while his son Kyle holds the reins at Vauxhall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the curtain closer, St Andrew Technical High will draw battle lines against Kingston College at 4:30 p.m. in what is expected to be an exciting affair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s games<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vauxhall vs Mona at Drewsland Mini Stadium (2pm)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

STATHS vs KC at Drewsland Mini Stadium (4:30pm)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JC vs Eltham at Stadium East (2pm)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excelsior vs Wolmer\u2019s at Stadium East (4:30pm)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Jamaica Gleaner<\/a>, October 3, 2026. Republished for the Wolmer\u2019s Trust community with attribution.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Gregory Bryce\/Staff Reporter October 3, 2026 Wolmer\u2019s Boys head coach Haron Martin said his players will not shy away […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trust-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}