Football fraternity mourns the passing of schoolboy footballer

Photo: Dominic James playing for St. Georges College in the Manning Cup recently.

Jamaica’s football fraternity was sent into a tailspin on Tuesday when young Dominic James died shortly after collapsing on the football field during a Manning Cup game.

James, captain of the St. Georges College team, fell to the ground just two minute into the Manning Cup game against Excelsior High at the Stadium East field.

He was attended to by doctors on the field before being rushed off to hospital. The game continued up until half time when news filtered through of his passing. This caused quite a stir among the players from both teams with some of them falling to the ground in distress.

An emotional Neville ‘Bertis’ Bell coach of St. Georges College explained, “Just before half time I asked them to call his father and when we made the call we heard that he had passed. It is very, very sad.”

When asked how the team was doing he said, “We are not good right now. This has never happened to me before and to be honest I don’t know how to deal with this right now, hopefully we will bounce back.”

With the players and team officials in no shape to continue, the match officials made the prudent decision to call off the match with Excelsior leading the contest 2-1.

The school is expected to make a decision about whether or not to continue playing in the competitions this season, in the next few days.