St. Andrew Technical High School is a co-ed institution that emphasizes Technical Education, skill and trade training, as well as Academic Education, at both the ordinary and advanced levels.
Sixty years ago , some of us started our first days at this brand-new institution . Glad to finally be in High School via the ” Over-age scholarship “, but disappointed that we were not admitted, like many of our friends were, two years earlier, to the top Secondary Institutions, like Kingston College, St. George’s College, Wolmers’ , St. Hugh’s, Jamaica College etc . Back then one needed “connections” , politically, socially, or otherwise, just to get into a “good” high school . For most of us the feeling was that this was a lousy consolation prize. After about the second or third week though, students and teachers bonded to the extent that we didn’t want to be anywhere else . The STATHS Family was born.
At sixty, STATHS and Vere Technical are among the “babies” of Jamaica’s Technical High School System, both opening their doors in 1961, as co-ed institutions.
The “grand-daddy” is Kingston Technical High School, which had its first male students enrolling in 1896, and seems to have admitted female students sometime later . It celebrated 125 years in January, of 2021.
Our pioneering students are all now in their late seventies. Sixty years went by so quickly. So here is the reality.
St. Andrew Technical won the Manning cup and Olivier shield in 1987. Notable players are, Richard "Danny Germs" Austin, Everette "Sammy" Samuel, Cederick " Ceddie" Peterking, Claude Bryan, Richard Moncrieffe, Michael Brown, Wayne Palmer, Raymond "Plumpy Allen, Morris Cyrus, Dean Sewell, Carl Binger, Clive Nicholson and Jeadine White
Clive Nicholson has the huge task of leading his team in this year’s tournament and will not want to disappoint. After enrolling at St. Andrew Technical High school (STATHS), Clive’s leadership skills on the football field were quickly spotted, earning him the captain’s arm band for the Colts team of 1983.
The following season, he was a member of the
senior (Manning Cup) team, holding his own thru’ 1986, when he would again
be asked to ‘skip’ the side and like a true champion, leading from the front and
by example, becoming the leading goal scorer while playing at center half. And
before the ink could dry on his All-Manning selection, Nicholson was on a jet
plane to foreign!
Can he win another ‘golden boot’?