UWI determined to stay in RSPL

Having emerged from a non-traditional Manning Cup schoolboy football school, St Catherine High, to representing the region's premier tertiary institution, University of West Indies (UWI) team, Rashane Smith said he is determined to help the team survive beyond the 2015-16 Red Stripe Premier League season.

"Getting a scholarship to the University of the West Indies is a great opportunity for me, and I think, as team captain, our goal is to stay in the premier league. Once we have the chance to move forward in the table we will take it."

UWI are one of the league's surprise packages this season with 22 points, in eighth place, their first season. They could overtake Boys Town with a win or draw, for seventh place, after tomorrow's encounter at Barbican.

"I think the journey has not been really hard. I have been playing football from a very small age. I just take it stage by stage. I played the Super League for a couple of years, and it has just been a learning process coming."

Amid the university's population and the adjoining Mona, Papine and August Town communities, the captain is calling for more support.

"School population, we don't get enough backing. You know at UWI that people like to win, so once you are winning you will get support, and the other day you lose, then back to normal, so I guess we just have to keep winning to get that support," he said.

"Being focused as a premier league player is not easy as we are in school, and now it is exam time, and we have to be really focused on school, plus premier league, so I guess it's more of concentration going forward, and just to be more confident in what we do and hope for the best.