SSFL24: CIC hire Glen; Grayson lifts lid on alleged issues at “Saints”

Former Club Sando head coach and ex-Soca Warriors standout Cornell Glen will lead the St Mary’s College football team for the foreseeable future, after he was installed as replacement to Michael Grayson yesterday.

Glen, 43, heads a new four-member technical staff which includes assistant coach Abdallah Phillips, goalkeeper coach Clayton Ince and physio Ryan Rogers.

Kona Hislop, a former St Mary’s College stand-out who assisted Grayson since 2023, remains as assistant coach. Hislop, who is also a Pro Series coach, is the younger brother of Shaka Hislop who played alongside Glen at the Germany 2006 World Cup.

Glen declined to comment on his new challenge while Damian Cooper, head of the St Mary’s College football committee, was also tight-lipped on the issues surrounding the managerial change at the school.

“We never handle our stuff by putting things into the public domain,” Cooper told Wired868. “So we won’t comment on anything that made its way into the public domain. It is a private matter and we will handle it internally.”

Grayson, a Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) hall of fame coach whose career spans four decades, had no such qualms about making public pronouncements.

A former QRC old boy, Grayson took over at St Mary’s in 2022—following the school’s relegation from the Premier Division before the Covid pandemic. He promptly steered the “Saints” back to the SSFL top flight, winning the National Big Five and North Zone Championship titles along the way.

However, Grayson said he soon realised that he was handicapped when it came to a crucial area: recruitment.

“The problem is the school’s policy—what other schools are doing, St Mary’s are not doing at all,” said Grayson. “And I am talking about the legitimate transfer or recruitment of players.”

Grayson noted that St Mary’s College (or CIC, as in College of Immaculate Conception), headed by principal Rawle Russell, seemed to have more testing hurdles for entrance, even at lower form level, than any other Premier Division school.

“The sort of exams that boys have to sit to come into St Mary’s, they can’t pass,” said Grayson, who claimed that a young player from Belmont Secondary failed their entrance test but was subsequently accepted at Queen’s Royal College.

“[…] I was at Trinity [College] East for two years and there you get an aptitude test to show you are capable of doing the work. In CIC, you get their English or Maths test that the average boy at another school wouldn’t pass.”

Grayson was bemused that Fatima College and St Mary’s College are both ostensibly run by the same Board of the Holy Ghost Fathers. Yet, Fatima seem to have far less trouble in getting transfers from secondary schools.

SSFL 2023 all-star goalkeeper Tristan Edwards joined Fatima from St Augustine Secondary while current custodian Shameal O’Brien is a former San Juan North Secondary student.

“It is the same [Board of the] Holy Ghost Father running both schools—but like St Mary’s has a different Holy Ghost Father,” said Grayson, with a laugh. “Maybe one is closer to heaven than the other one!”

Grayson thought he pulled off a coup when St Anthony’s College goalkeeper Josiah Morris decided to transfer there. Morris was a standout for the “Westmoorings Tigers” when they lifted the North Zone Intercol title last year.

But that potential move didn’t work out either.

“He was with us all preseason,” said Grayson. “He was going from form three into form four—but he didn’t even get to take an entrance exam. He was just told that there was no space.”

Instead, Morris lined up with St Anthony’s on Wednesday 11 September as the Westmoorings Tigers promptly put six goals past St Mary’s without reply.

Grayson suggested that expecting to succeed without transfers in the SSFL Premier Division was not only naïve but, in St Mary’s case, bordered on hypocritical.

“CIC is CIC (a former football powerhouse) because of players like Luciano Woodley coming from Belmont Intermediate, Keston Nancoo coming from Woodbrook Secondary, and Steve Waldron from Arima Secondary,” he said. “I think Russell Tesheira came either from South East or St James Secondary. And we are talking about over 50 years ago!

“It was the same for schools like QRC and St Benedict’s College and Fatima, who took in the great ‘Gally’ Cummings. Those schools became great football schools from transferring students who were not bandits, they were boys who went there and worked hard and were able to bring glory. That ent happening at CIC now!

“The last person who got a transfer like that to CIC might have been Tyrese Spicer who came from El Do blue (El Dorado East Secondary) when his father (Trevor Spicer) was [CIC assistant] coach.

“And [Tyrese] made a name for himself and eventually went into sixth form at CIC before he transferred to St Augustine when his father became coach there.”

Nigel Joseph was St Mary’s College principal at the time that the school agreed to accept Tyrese, who went on to get a full scholarship at Lipscomb University before turning professional with Major League Soccer (MLS) team, Toronto FC.

Grayson said recruiting was not the only other issue. The other was retaining their own student-athletes who were often not given priority for sixth form spots and forced to move.

Star winger Ryan Radellant got seven passes, according to Grayson, but was only given the option to repeat at St Mary’s College. So, he moved to Naparima College instead.

Goalkeeper Tyrese Henry and defender Jaeden Bobb moved to St Augustine and St Anthony’s College respectively in similar circumstances. Three other players were told they could not return due to suspensions for “minor incidents”.

“That comes like you are punishing the boys twice,” said Grayson.

Talented City FC attacker Aadil Abdul-Hakeem was one of that trio. He also moved to the Westmoorings Tigers.

Apart from having three boys that should have been wearing St Mary’s stripes lining up for St Anthony’s College in their opening clash, Grayson also lifted the lid on their late scramble for a goalkeeper which saw the school bend its own recruitment rules.

“Our three goalkeepers got rejected by the school for a sixth form place,” he said. “So four to five days before our opening game, we had no keeper whatsoever! The committee is now scrambling and they ended up getting the Estefan Gift from St Anthony’s.

“The same boy sat an entrance exam (for St Mary’s) in July and was rejected. But crisis time come and they change their mind. The problem is he came in injured.

“Then Josiah Superville also comes in from El Do (to repeat fourth form) although he also came in with a groin injury.”

Grayson said four of the six goals that the Saints conceded in their opener were “definite goalkeeper errors” but said the goalkeeper should not be blamed as he was carrying an injury at the time.

“That start was down to a straight administrative crisis and that is what has been suppressing the success of the CIC team in the Premier Division,” said the veteran coach. “The [recruiting] policy can’t be hard and fast, it has to be more human.

“I’m not saying that because other schools doing something, you’re going to do it too. But people coming in from different schools had a lot to do with CIC’s success in the past—that is the reality.

“[…] We had a great preseason and the players really worked. But the week before our opening game, you had all these crisis things happening…”

After their embarrassing opening defeat, St Mary’s let a lead slip against joint leaders Malick Secondary in a 3-1 loss at home last weekend before they edged bottom of the table Miracle Ministries Pentecostal High School on 18 September.

Grayson said he had been hearing whispers about other coaches being offered his job, even before the 2024 Premier Division season started. But, as the team stumbled, he claimed that the tone of the meetings with Cooper worsened.

“The football committee, in my opinion, started to panic,” said Grayson. “We had a meeting after our last game, which we won [against Miracle Ministries PHS] and for me there was just total disrespect.

“People should understand that you don’t keep beating teams six or seven-nil in this league; teams improve. And it was a difficult ground (at Edinburgh 500).”

St Mary’s 2-1 win over Miracle Ministries put the Saints in 11th spot, which was three places above the relegation zone. Grayson hoped the team could push on from there.

But then came his meeting with the football committee.

How did Grayson feel he was disrespected?

Grayson alleged that Cooper, without his prior knowledge, set up an ice bath and recovery session for the players on Thursday 19 September. He claimed to then learn that the school had hired a physio for the team.

“I asked who was the new team physio—and he told me he was not at liberty to say,” said Grayson. “I said what?! I told myself one time that if that is not disrespect then Michael Grayson something wrong with you!

“It was clearly time for me to go and I decided that I would preempt what they were clearly going to. Based on what I had been hearing, they were going to fire me and Kona.

“I say allyuh not getting the chance to do that—allyuh fast and out of place!”

St Mary’s College, he noted, still have a lot of talented young players at the school. Midfielder Alejandro Harper, who scored the winner against Miracle Ministries is a National Under-17 team player while Deron Blackman, a gifted midfielder, was one of the standouts at the recent CFU Boys Under-14 Series.

But Grayson thinks the technical staff needed time to develop their young players. And he believes that a lack of administrative support created unnecessary hurdles.

“There were a lot of things administrative-wise that were affecting the team,” he said. “We have good players; the fellahs will do well. This team won’t be demoted and I think they will blossom by next year.

“But the problem is by then some players will have left because they won’t get back in the school.”

He offered only a wry comment in relation to the new coaching staff, filled with household names.

“Kona and myself were buying water from our pockets for practice and games for the last few weeks—because they said water was supposed to be delivered by someone and it ent reach yet,” said Grayson.

“So when I hear about the names that are coming in now to coach CIC, I ask myself: where are you getting the money to pay these fellahs?”

Glen will have the chance to turn attention away from the administrators and back to the football team tomorrow, when St Mary’s host Signal Hill Secondary from 3pm at Serpentine Road.

A win can see the Saints feasibly climb one place to tenth spot. A defeat could see them drop to 13th.

Already, a finish in the top half of the standings seems like a tall order for the giants of yesteryear.