The Basketball programme at Cornwall College started with an Under-19 team in 1997, under the guidance of our first coach Mr. Hopeton Gilchrist. In that same year, the team, won the inaugural one day rally, then went on to win the Western Championship and reached the national semi-finals which they lost to Tivoli High, under the guidance of volunteer coach Mr. Fred Davis, while Mr. Gilchrist took on the role of manager.
They continued their dominance on the Basketball stage, winning the Western Championship for the next three years and made the finals for the fourth year, losing to St. James High.
This loss proved only a break in transmission, as the championship run picked up the next year, 2001-2002 and the team experienced another three years of victory, amidst unsettledness in coaching.
Mrs. L. Allen as Basketball Staff Advisor begun quite accidentally, in 2003, a sixth form students Lionel Fisher, who was the Coach and captain at the time, kept inviting me to see the team play at the Montego Bay Cricket Club.
In 2003 Mr. Richard Meggie took up the coaching of the team on a voluntary basis and under his watch the U-19 team continued to excel and an U-16 team was formed. After he left however, the sport suffered for the next three years as there was no consistent coach and the new players did not have the passion that the original team had.
In 2008, the school employed the services of our present coach and old boy, Mr. Sheldon Pearson who, assisted by Jermaine Rerrie (past player and captain) in his first year, injected new life into the programme. The indomitable basketball spirit arose again and we were determined to regain our status as Basketball Champions and to once again dominate the Basketball stage. To prove our point we added an Under-14 team.
The Under 14 team started with a bang, winning the Western Championship for the first 3 years (2008-2010) of its existence and was 4th in the island in their 3rd year (2010). Since 2008 also, the Under-16 team has won the Championship 2 times and the U-19 team 3 times. In fact, the U-19 team is well on its way to winning the championship for the 3rd consecutive year, under the leadership of their able and skillful captain, Tevin Brown. Winning the Championship for three consecutive years is a feat no other school in the west has been able to achieve. Overall, we have under our belts 18 Championship titles - 3 U-14 titles, 2 U-16 titles, and 13 U-19 titles (including the inaugural one-day rally and the national one-day rally held at the beginning of this season). It is worth noting that Cornwall Colleges’ U-19 team has won the Western Championship title 11 times out of a possible 15 times.
