The young ladies from Cayman Prep retained the CUC Girls’ Primary Football League (GPFL) Opening Rally title this past Saturday, September 15 at the Annex Field after going unbeaten in round-robin play.

Taking a slightly different approach this year, the GPFL coaches decided to implement a schedule whereby all participating schools would play as many games as possible during the day. With seven schools registering for the tournament, each school would play six games with the school amassing the most points at the end of play being crowned champions.

Participating schools included Cayman International School, Cayman Prep, George Town Primary, Savannah Primary, Sir John A. Cumber Primary, St. Ignatius Catholic School and South Sound Schools.

Under very warm conditions, the players’ resilience and determination was exemplary. With an uneven number of participants, all schools were required to play at least two back-to-back games to complete the schedule. Fortunately, the Opening Rally games are only 20 minutes in length with two halves of 10 minutes and a three minute halftime break. This made it a little more accommodating for the players and coaches.

With development, participation and preparation for the regular season the main reasons behind staging the Opening Rally events, the schools bringing larger squads were able to play all their players throughout the day. Schools limited with smaller squads found the conditions very difficult as many of their young ladies were playing competitive football for the very first time. But play they did and throughout the heat, pain and tiredness, they played on with all but one of the 21 scheduled games being completed.

Cayman Prep finished the day undefeated with 18 points from 6 victories, scoring 17 goals along the way and conceding none. Runners-up were Savannah Primary on 11 points, winning 3 games, losing 1 and drawing the other 2 and St. Ignatius Catholic rounded-off the top three with 10 points with a record of 3 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw.
Fourth was Cayman International School on 9 points, fifth was South Sound Schools with 4 points, sixth was George Town Primary with 3 points and seventh was Sir John A. Cumber Primary with 2 points.

Special thanks to contributing sponsors Gatorade and youth officials Jonathan Holness, Kandre Amerally, Caleb McFarlane, Alex Dailey and the Windsor sisters – Shay and Coco – who did an excellent job officiating all the games throughout the day under the guidance of Chastine Rankine and Shirley Amerally.

The 2018 CUC Boy’s Primary Football League (PFL) Opening Rally takes centre stage this Saturday, September 22 beginning at 9:00 a.m. at the Annex Field. The 2018 CUC PFL and GPFL regular seasons start on Saturday, September 29 at venues across Grand Cayman.

IMAGE:
2018 Girls’ Opening Rally champions Cayman Prep (blue) score against St. Ignatius Catholic School