DEBE High made a clean sweep of the Girls Secondary Schools Football League titles taking all five this season when they claimed the Coca Cola National Intercol.
Head coach Arnold Murphy said his girls have done well to reclaim the national titles after going down to El Dorado in the Big Four final and Vessigny in the South Intercol in 2011. Debe won the South Zone leaague, Intercol, the “Big Four”, Trinidad Intercol and the National Intercol.
“We have only lost two games in the last five years and both were last season and we have the best defensive record for the last six or seven years as well. The girls have done very well especially this season,” said the coach.
Murphy feels the reason behind the success is the fact that most of the players competed in the national league. “The school has been successful because most of the girls have played for Petrotrin at the national senior level.
Coming down back to the college league was no problem since it was a step or two steps down from the national league and hence the reason for the performance of Debe. Mariah Shade, Lenfah Jones and the others all played for Petrotrin and it made things easier during the college league and we were able to dominate,” said the coach.
While Petrotrin has been disbanded he feels the team is still successful because it was basically the same bunch of girls doing the job in the last three or four years. He added that the girls were very young when he took them under his wings and they were able to mature right at the school and club.
He singled out star player Kayla Taylor who despite injury, carried the team offensively for another season.
“Kayla is any coach’s dream, for a young lady she has excellent abilities to play the game and she has a great knowledge. If you put her to play any position on the field she is able to bring something to the table. She may not be as fit as she could be due to some injuries but she is any team’s nightmare.”
He also praised the efforts of Patrice Vincent and Akila Sparks. “These two are the defensive backbone for the team. I can’t ask for anything better. They are as solid as I could get at the back and Patrice can also go forward as well.”