Former National Under-17 and Calabar High School's Manning Cup coach, David Hunt, was pronounced dead at the University Hospital of the West Indies yesterday, after collapsing at his home in Havendale, St. Andrew.

Just hours before his team, Calabar were scheduled to play Edith Dalton James in a crucial fixture, the coach was discovered unconscious on the bathroom floor of his residence by the team's manager.

Pronounced dead

Hunt was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Preliminary findings indicate that Hunt may have died from a heart attack. He was 51.

A qualified professional with a masters' degree in business administration, Hunt amassed various coaching qualifications, including the highly regarded English FA International Coaching Preliminary Award course.

A Kingston College old boy, he also achieved unprecedented success with youth teams - both on the local and international stage.

Appointed coach of the Under-17 team in February 2006, Hunt delivered a memorable victory for the nation, when his squad beat Mexico in a practice match just one year later.

Public acclaim

Three months later he would reap even more public acclaim when the young Reggae Boyz recorded a historic 3-2 victory over the United States. The win was the first for Jamaica over the United States at any level.

Locally, he holds the distinction of being the only coach to hold all five Kingston and St. Andrew Football Association youth titles, with his team Meadhaven in 2005, a club of which he was also president and a founding member. In addition, Hunt was the toast of the schoolboy football fraternity when he won the 2005-06 ISSA/Pepsi Manning Cup and the Olivier Shield competitions, which broke a 30-year Calabar drought.

However, consumed by the game, Hunt was known in the local sporting arena for an intensitywhich at times seemed to border on the unhealthy. Amid pressure from the media and public after the failure of the Under-17 team to qualify for the World Cup during final round qualifiers here, he immediately resigned as coach of the outfit and could not be contacted for comment even months afterwards.

Following his team's unexpected exit from the schoolboy football competition last year, the coach perched on an igloo just outside the playing field, looked desolate for close to an hour. Hunt simply hated to lose. Recently married, he had celebrated the birth of his first child just eight months ago. In a release issued late yesterday Prime Minister Bruce Golding expressed his regret at Hunt's passing.

'Jamaica has lost another great sportsman, whose love and dedication to coaching and training young people will be greatly missed at this time when our country continues to cry out for the kind of leadership, discipline and dedication that marked 'Wagga's' performance,' he said. Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, Olivia Grange, also expressed her regret at his passing.

'His passing is also of significance at this time as the Jamaica Football Federation is about to observe its 45th anniversary,' she said in another release.

'My condolences go out to his wife, child, mother and the rest of his family,' Miss Grange said.

Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

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