Bernard, who hinted that the 2019 season was his last after his team won the Champions Cup 1-0 over Clarendon College, explained his decision to remain at Kingston College with Sportsmax.TV during the ISSA SBF Presentation ceremony at the Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston on Wednesday.
“It was the youthfulness of the team. After careful consideration and discussions with the powers that be, I thought it would have been best to carry on the programme with the players that we have seeing that we only lost three players, just for the sake of continuity,” said Bernard while revealing that he doesn’t see himself being at the North-Street-based school beyond the coming season.
“But, clearly again at the end of the season, there is going to have to be further discussion. I can safely say I will be putting in place a succession plan for the programme going forward.”
The coach, who in 2018 led KC to their first Manning Cup title in three decades, explained that KC’s principal Dave Myrie said he could not leave KC until he finds a successor.
Meanwhile, Bernard said the team could be under a lot of pressure of expectation to repeat their success in the Champions Cup but thinks they will be mature enough to come through with silverware in the end.
“I thought that the team over-performed last season. We didn’t have expectations of going this far but as the season progressed the team got stronger and the players started to believe in themselves,” he said.
“I think it was a product of what transpired the year before when we won the Manning Cup. When you looked at the boys’ demeanour and attitude, they are telling themselves that they could not lose a game, which they didn’t in 90 minutes for the entire season.
“And, they had that look of invincibility about them so I figure that their confidence is going to be pretty high come this season.”
