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Pre-season win means nothing Calabar’s coach says Walker Cup clash against KC requires different approach
September 29, 2026
Calabar High School’s head coach Kemar Ricketts has warned his players that their 1-0 pre-season victory over Kingston College (KC) will count for little when the traditional rivals meet again in today’s second-round ISSA Walker Cup KO competition at Stadium East.
Calabar got the better of KC in the David ‘Wagga’ Hunt Football Classic over the summer. But with a place in the Walker Cup quarter-finals at stake, Ricketts believes the circumstances surrounding today’s contest make it an entirely different challenge.
“‘Wagga’ Hunt has no bearing on the game because that was a pre-season tournament,” Ricketts said.
“This game is a knockout, and you want to get to the next level, so you want to put in all the effort.”
The second-round fixture will be Calabar’s first competitive game of the season after their first-round opponents, Dunoon Park Technical, withdrew from the competition.
KC, meanwhile, already have a Walker Cup game under their belt, defeating St Mary’s College 3-0 in the opening round.
That difference in match rhythm is something Ricketts is mindful of, particularly with his Calabar squad still preparing for the start of their season.
“With the change of the competition in terms of having that much rhythm, KC would have played a game [while] we haven’t played as yet,” he said.
“KC’s team is good. They’re one of the favourites to win this competition,” Ricketts added. “If you look at the individuals that they have there, they’re packed with talent, but I’m sure that we can cause them some problems as well.”
The Calabar coach believes the biggest difference will be the nature of the competition itself.
While the group stages of the Manning Cup allow teams opportunities to recover from mistakes over the course of a season, the knockout format demands a more calculated approach.
“In a league game, you can take more risks, you can do more things,” he said. “In a knockout game, you still want to be a bit cautious of what is happening, and you want to grind this result out.”
Ricketts said his players have been adapting well to his methods despite the challenges of preparing a young squad.
It will also be Ricketts first game in the Corporate Area of schoolboy football, having previously coached Munro College and BB Coke High.
He spent nearly two decades at BB Coke; eight as the assistant coach and nine as the head coach, and led the school to its first-ever schoolboy football title by lifting the Ben Francis Cup title in 2019.
“It’s a new challenge, it’s a new environment, but I’ve been adapting well,” he said. “Everything will never be perfect, but we just put in the work on a day-to-day basis and just hope that the boys can stay focused and handle their part of it.”
Today’s games:
Charlie Smith vs Vauxhall at Charlie Smith
Eltham vs Campion at Eltham
St Catherine vs Wolmer’s at St Catherine
KC vs Calabar at Stadium East
JC vs STGC at Ashenheim Stadium
