August 5, 2026
Ali Cup Jr Invitational Pre Season Tournament 2026 adapts Olivier Shield format
Written byRoger Hasfal
An Olivier Shield style format has been adapted for this year’s staging of the Ali Cole Jr Preseason Invitational Football Tournament to be hosted by the Green and Black Family of Excelsior High School from August 11th to 15th, 2026.
20 teams including 10 Manning cup and 10 DaCosta cup teams are down to participate at the tournament which was first staged in 2018 and named in honour of the late former Excelsior High’s winning Manning Cup Captain Allan Cole Jr.
The competition which is an ISSA endorsed event, will feature reigning Manning Cup and Olivier Shield champions Excelsior and Dacosta Cup Champions St Elizabeth Technical.
Featuring in Zone A on the Manning cup cup bracket are: Excelsior, Kingston Technical, Vauxhall, Dunoon Technical and Papine High.
Zone B features: Norman Manley, Clan Carthy, Campion College, Hillel Academy and Camperdown.
The Dacosta Cup bracket sees Zone A featuring: Steths, Christiana High, Vere Technical, William Knibb and St James high.
Zone B includes: Clarendon College, Mannings, Foga Road High, Aphansus Davis High, and Irwin High.
The DaCosta Cup preliminary games will be held at St. Elizabeth Technical High School on August 11th and 12th.
On Thursday, August 13th through Saturday, August 15th, both the Manning Cup preliminary games and the playoffs will take place at Excelsior High School.
CEO of The Green & Black Family the main organisers of the event Carlton ‘Sambo’ Hammond, is urging continued support for the tournament.
Meanwhile among the 2026 ACT award recipients are Excelsior High’s football Alums: Garfield McLeod, Michael Williams, Carl Brown, Ryan Dawes, Ryan Bolin and Fabian Watkins
The Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are: Deanroy Bromfield (current XLCR principal), Robert Mais and Kisha Bailey.
