Wishing David ‘Wagga’ Hunt farewell
The football world, both schoolboy and national, was gutted two weeks with news of the death of coach David ‘Wagga’ Hunt.
If the pictures and words of his charges at Calabar High School were anything to go by, one could assume that Mr Hunt was loved and respected by all. As a matter of fact, it was sobering to see big, strong Manning Cup players holding back tears as they left the room where they were told of Mr Hunt’s death.
It truly is rare to see a man touch the hearts of so many young men in such a positive way. Accolades and condolences were issued from all areas of society, to the man who meant so much to the people with who all he came in contact.
On the 26th of October, Hunt was at his house when he collapsed in his bathroom. He had reportedly just finished playing with his young daughter and had decided to take a bath. His wife was alerted when she heard his phone ringing unanswered. When she went into the bathroom she found him on the floor. He was pronounced dead at the hospital later.
A strict disciplinarian, ‘Wagga’ understood that football was simply a microcosm of society and that once discipline and unity were shown on the field, they could be manifested in other areas of life. He was considered a great mentor and father by both the coaching staff and the players of his teams. Read more
Calabar High School, David “Wagga” Hunt and The Walker Cup
The great Calabar High School has done it again. Last week Friday, the football team defeated Jamaica College (JC) to lift the Walker Cup trophy, symbol of the best knock-out schoolboy football team in the Corporate Area. They did it in 1974, when I was a member of Calabar High School.
Calabar, under the coaching of David Hunt, a Kingston College old boy, was fast becoming a football powerhouse to match its well known exploits in track and field. Under the guidance of David, Calabar won the Manning Cup and for the first time won the Olivier Shield. It was therefore, fitting tribute that manager Homer Morgan, new coach, Lijyasu Simms and the footballers dedicated the victory to their beloved and respected coach, David Hunt.
The match was not the best schoolboy football match I have watched. That honour belongs to the Calabar vs Clarendon College (CC) match in the 1970s. We drew with CC in Chapelton and we went to the National Stadium with high hopes. However, led by Lenny ‘Teacher’ Hyde, now coach of Harbour View, we got a fine lesson in playing total football. I have not since seen a schoolboy dominate a football match as Lenny Hyde. Neither have I seen a schoolboy team play better.
Emotional maturity
However, what this year’s Walker Cup Champions lacked in class, they made up with sheer grit, emotional maturity and finishing power. To ask teenagers to play football matches so soon after the death of their coach was asking a bit much. That they did it and won showed supernatural power. To be honest a 3-0 margin flattered Calabar.
Calabar lifting the Olivier Shield in 2005
As saw it, JC had more of the ball possession. However, JC lacked the finishing power. Calabar was strong in defence and the goalkeeper was assured most times. And captain Cleyon Brown was a marvel with a hat trick of goals. It was really a fitting tribute to David.
In the late ’70s, I used to visit the home of the Hunts frequently because my cousins, the Robinsons, were close friends of theirs. But strangely, I did not associate the white-haired and bearded David Hunt with his parents. But I admired David as the coach of Calabar. Read more
Calabar SSA/Pepsi/Digicel Walker Cup 2007 Champions!
A hat trick from captain Cleyon Brown carried Calabar High to a 3-0 win over rivals Jamaica College (JC) in the final of the Walker Cup at the National Stadium yesterday, as the Red Hills Road institution realised its dream of winning the coveted crown in honour of its recently passed coach, David ‘Wagga’ Hunt. Brown netted in the 39th, 67th and 81st minutes to deny the Old Hope Road school their first hold on the trophy, while giving Calabar their second lien on the title. The players knew what they had to do and they came and did it for the great David Hunt,” said winning coach Lijyasu Simms.
“He was a great mentor, a great coach, a father, everything. It is hard to explain, but we have done it for him,” he added.
After looking the more likely to score in the first-half, JC found themselves a goal behind six minutes before the break.
However, Ramone Palmer had earlier found the net for JC 15 minutes into the match, but he was ruled offside.
The midfielder then had another gloirious opportunity on the half-hour, after he intercepted a backpass from Ricardo Lattibeaudiere, but with only goalkeeper Oneil Wilson to beat, he put his effort wide of the upright.
Calabar had good possession but rarely had a clear chance at goal.
But Brown put his team ahead after taking down a ball over the JC defence and fired an arrow-straight shot into the goal at Oliver Walker’s near-post. Read more
Calabar, JC into Walker Cup final 2007
Calabar High and Jamaica College (JC) scored identical 1-0 victories over Bridgeport and Excelsior High, respectively, at the National Stadium yesterday to set up a mouth-watering Walker Cup final at the same venue tomorrow. Red Hills Roads-based Calabar beat Bridgeport in extra-time through an Odain Sinclair strike, while JC stopped Excelsior courtesy of Anthony Grant’s 34th-minute goal. Interestingly, the final will pitch a JC side consisting of four players from last season’s Calabar team, which includes former captain of the 2005 Manning Cup and Oliver Shield winning side, Robert Palmer, who missed yesterday’s game through suspension.
The others are playmaker Ramone Palmer, Kemal Bedward and Adrian Christian. They will face-off against their former team-mates in what is expected to be a keenly-contested affair.
According to one Calabar fan, “Wagga had predicted this”, and for JC coach, Alfred Henry, the match will be an emotional one as the late Calabar coach, David Hunt, was a close and longtime friend and Calabar are also out to win the trophy for their former coach.
In the feature match, JC College looked the more threatening of the teams at the start and went ahead after half-an-hour when Grant raced onto a ball played over the Excelsior defence and shot across goalkeeper Ameal Douglas into the far corner. Read more
An afternoon with Olympic legend Herb McKenley
There may not be enough room here to list the accomplishments of track & field legend Herbert Henry McKenley. There is no more room on the walls, or space on the desk of his study to display the trophies, citations, and medals he has won in his 85 years.
As the Sunday Observer sat with the fabulous ‘Herb’ in the living room of his University Crescent home, he handed us the jacket cover of a documentary on his life produced by the CPTC.
Order of Jamaica; Commander of Distinction; Doctor of Laws (with honours); world-class athlete; world-class coach; the first man in recorded history to run the 400 metres in under 46 seconds in a flat race and under 45 seconds on a relay leg.
The only man to have won medals in all three sprints in the same major games; only man in the 20th Century to have Olympic medals in the 100m and 400m, it said.
That feature was produced in 2002, before Jamaica’s most notable athlete was conferred with the country’s third highest honour - the Order of Merit - for distinguished service in athletics locally and internationally and before Roosevelt Avenue was renamed Herb McKenley Drive in his honour. Read more
Calabar through to Walker Cup Semi Finals
Second-half goals from Keneil Hyde and Cleyon Brown carried Calabar High School to a hard-fought 2-1 win over St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) in the Walker Cup quarter-finals, a win they dedicated to their recently passed coach, David ‘Wagga’ Hunt, at the Prison Oval yesterday. Hyde put the green-and-black clad side ahead in the 54th minute, and Brown added the second three minutes later. hevon Charlton netted for STATHS from the penalty spot in the 77th.
Earlier, in the another quarter-final, Excelsior pumped seven unanswered goals past Camperdown. Calabar’s team manager, Homer Morgan, said after a busy and emotional week in which the team played four matches and lost their coach, they did well to win.
“We tried our best to come here and play for coach today… Never say die, that was a motto he left with the boys,” Morgan told reporters.
“The boys were cramping up because they had a busy week last week, where we played about four matches. But we told them that Mr Hunt was a person who would tell them that no matter what is happening they have to be focused.
“So we showed them that, and as you see today they came out and all of them wanted to win this one for the coach,” he stated.
He continued that the team will not need any more motivation for the rest of the season. “They are highly motivated. The Calabar fraternity would also like to take the opportunity to tell his family the we are there with you. And right now Mr Hunt is an honorary Old Boy of Calabar and today we dedicate this match to him,” he added. Read more
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General community site and blog for one of Jamaica's finest educational Institutions, Calabar High School.
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