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Hillview College have fired head coach Jeremy McMeo, midway through the 2026 Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) SporTT Premiership Division season—despite the fact that the newly promoted team are in the top half of the standings at present.
Hillview are ninth in the 17-team standings, after two draws against St Mary’s College and St Benedict’s College and successive losses to Speyside Secondary and Naparima College in their last four matches.
Photo: Nicholas Williams/ Wired868.
The Tunapuna-based school trail leaders, St Mary’s, by 10 points, while they are four points above the relegation zone. However, they do have a game in hand and have already played five of the schools in the top six of the standings.
McMeo confirmed that he was fired yesterday afternoon. Arguably, the die was cast when Hillview fell 3-1 to Speyside on their home ground last Saturday.
On Wednesday morning, as they prepared to face defending champions Naparima at Lewis Street, San Fernando, McMeo was told to attend a meeting on Thursday to “discuss team issues”.
Hillview were edged 2-1 by “Naps” on Wednesday evening, with National Under-17 Team midfielder Donovan Drayton grabbing the winner in the 86th minute.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868.
The next day, McMeo was fired—in a meeting that allegedly included school principal Derek Bissessar, manager Nirad Tewarie, who is the most senior administrator for the football programme, and another Hillview football programme board member.
Tewarie took over the Hillview football programme in 2022. His son, Dhiren Tewarie, was just entering second form there and the roll-back of Covid-19 restrictions meant a resumption of school football.
Dhiren has played for the school ever since and is a member of Hillview’s Premiership pool, although he only featured in matches against lowly St Anthony’s College and Mucurapo West Secondary so far this season.
McMeo, who ran his own football academy, DBA (Dream it, believe it, achieve it), said he was Tewarie’s first hire as coach.
Their formal relationship at Hillview ended abruptly on Thursday, after five years. McMeo said the proposed discussion never happened.
Photo: Nicholas Williams/ Wired868.
“There was no matter put on the table to redress or to address,” McMeo told Wired868. “Within the first 30 or 35 seconds, without me saying a word, I was terminated with immediate effect. I never got to say anything or to address the boys.
“It was instant termination.”
Parents were subsequently informed, via WhatsApp, that McMeo’s assistant, Jerwyn Balthazar, was appointed as head coach “with immediate effect”, and the administrative staff is “confident in his abilities to lead the teams effectively”.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868.
(McMeo’s role included oversight of all Hillview football teams, inclusive of the Premiership side.)
“After careful consideration, we have decided to go in a different direction,” stated the release. “[…] Coach Jeremy is an exceptionally talented coach. We are very grateful to him for all that he has done to bring Hillview football to where it is today and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavours.
“We wish to assure you (the parents) that the wellbeing of players across all age groups is our paramount priority.”
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868.
Hillview College had never played in the Premier Division, which launched in 2014, before the combination of Tewarie and McMeo.
“I started the [Hillview] programme,” said McMeo. “There was no school football [at Hillview] when I came in—there were not even registered to play football.”
After initially playing in the younger age groups, McMeo said he encouraged Hillview to join the Senior Division (an under-20 age group that is effectively the third rung of the domestic school game) for the 2023 season.
Hillview College used the RBNYL as a development tool in 2023 and 2024, while competing as HVC FC.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868.
A stream of lower division accolades followed, as they won the East Senior title in 2023 and then back-to-back East Championship crowns in 2024 and 2025, along with the First Citizens Big Five trophy in the latter year—as they clinched promotion to the top flight.
There were also East Under-16 League titles in 2024 and 2025.
Over the years, Hillview raised eyebrows with aggressive recruitment—for the 2026 season, they lured San Juan North Secondary captain and midfielder Daniel Lewis, and the Arima North Secondary duo of Jadon-Paul Alexander and Cristiano Hinds, among others, to Tunapuna.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868.
Lewis and Alexander are both national youth team players, while Hinds is their top scorer this season with six goals so far.
Transfers are a routine part of SSFL business and McMeo made no apology for their targeting of talent from other schools.
“Just like every year, we take a look at the team and have a discussion about where needs to be strengthened and we target those issues,” said McMeo. “We are not blessed with talent coming in the form one classes, so sometimes we have to be creative…”
Photo: Nicholas Williams/ Wired868.
Now, the Hillview machine will continue without McMeo.
Tewarie, according to the outgoing coach, set the team a top five objective this season. It looked imminently achievable by the end of match day four.
Hillview were fourth in the standings then, with three wins and a solitary defeat to Arima North. Among their triumphs was a head-turning 6-3 victory away to heavyweights Fatima College. McMeo’s troops led 6-1 at one stage.
Moe’s Fatima were humbled 6-3 by Hillview College in arguably the upset of the season so far. However, Fatima recovered to occupy third place while Hillview are ninth.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868.
They went on a bye on match day five and failed to win a game from their four outings since.
Draws away to CIC and challengers St Benedict’s College could hardly be considered bad results. But Hillview would have expected better against Speyside.
Did that one loss from their last six games prompt Tewarie, who is also San Juan Jabloteh chair, to reach for the trigger? Was even temporarily occupying ninth place considered a sackable offence?
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868.
McMeo said he does not believe his dismissal had anything to do with Hillview’s results. But he declined to elaborate.
Neither McMeo nor Tewarie responded to claims, unsubstantiated at the moment, that members of the Hillview board wanted the coach to use certain players in the top flight, and were often frustrated by his response on match days.
“We had objectives and we were just outside of it—but in the first half of the season we had more difficult fixtures,” said McMeo. “The objective was a top five finish in the first year. With a game in hand and the fixtures coming up, it was obtainable.
Photo: Nicholas Williams/ Wired868.
“[…] I do wish the boys and the school the best. The majority of them sent me messages and I reiterated they should keep their heads up. I do hope they push on as much as they could.”
Hillview are away to Signal Hill Secondary tomorrow, before they host the struggling pair of Trinity College and Trinity College East, and then travel to face San Juan North Secondary.
It is Balthazar’s responsibility now to make sure that Hillview’s points keep coming in.
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Lasana Liburd is the managing director and chief editor at Wired868.com and a journalist with over 20 years experience at several Trinidad and Tobago and international publications including Play the Game, World Soccer, UK Guardian and the Trinidad Express.
