From 'Bottle-ball' to Football-Leighton Donaldon

The former Under 17 Jamaica National goal keeper, Leighton Donaldson, has found landing on the UWI football team. The 19 year old and a devout Church of God young man gave a deep history of his earlier years as he expresses his state of happiness at this newly achieved blessing and another goal saved in his life.

Donaldson hails from Mocho in Clarendon, from a district in the high hills called Victoria. Though initially from Manchester he says most of his childhood was spent in the community of Mocho. Leighton is the first child for his father Dolbert Donaldson, Church Deacon and Farmer, and the second son for mother Beverly Donaldson, Homemaker and Sunday School Teacher. Leighton speaks of his two brothers and in the same breath mourns the loss of his youngest brother who lost the battle to leukaemia last year September. Leighton is a young man who stays close to church and as such sings and plays the drum.

Leighton started the Victoria Primary School in 1997. At this school he began to play football in grade 5 through the encouragement of his bigger brother Richard Lindsay. From that point in time Leighton was playing in the position of goalkeeper. Father Dolbert transferred Leighton to Four Path Primary & Junior High School, where he was asked to repeat grade 5. In this new environment the difficulty of fitting in posed a challenge. However, he tells the tale of one day seeing the guys playing ‘bottle-ball’ (football with a bottle) and as he watched the ball came to his feet, they told him to kick it back to them. They saw his skills in how he kicked the bottle to them. They kicked it again to test his ability as goalkeeper. Young Donaldson reached out to catch as a goal keeper would and proved to others the true goalkeeper he is.

That year the school was entering the Under 12 regional league. As they trained they realized that they needed a goal keeper. The skill of Donaldson was communicated to the coach of the primary school and they requested him to try out for the team. Again Leighton passed the test that the coach put him through at the age of eleven in primary school. “The coach told me to turn my back,” Leighton said, “when he did that he kicked the ball to me and while the ball was on its way to me, he told me to turn around and I caught it,” he continued. “The coach repeated this process several times and on every occasion I caught the ball,” Leighton explained. From this try out, the coach made him the captain of the team. He was proud of himself as he was a new student and a new player. The team played at the Under 12 that year and though they did not win it was a goal through the post for young Donaldson. The coach wanted him to play for the Under 15 team but Leighton decided that his Grade Six Achievement Test at the time was high priority.

The try-outs for the parish team was now in July after GSAT and his bigger brother Richard, took him to meet Mr. John Green the coach of the Parish team. He entered the game with the Parish under 12 team from this meeting, as the goal keeper and made great saves for the team, despite his height. From this experience, he was encouraged to go to the under 13 team though he was still 12. Leighton tried out for the Under 13 Team and the more he played the more he dominated. Leighton made the team and in a month he was the starting goal keeper.

With the result of GSAT now out, Leighton had been placed at Garvey Maceo High School. Due to the distance of the school from home, Mr. Carnie asked if he would have preferred transferring to somewhere nearer home. So the transfer to Denbigh high School was a better choice for Donaldson, to his advantage, Mr. Carnie was the coach there for football. Donaldson started Denbigh in 2004 while still playing at the parish level.

Being the brilliant young man Leighton is he went into the brightest grade stream, 7one, stream which he remained in until he graduated in fifth form. Remaining excellent in his academics was not a loss to his performance in his football pursuits. Donaldson’s team won the Rural Under 13 that year still unbeaten. They went on to win the rural area competition Under 14 still unbeaten. When faced in the All Island championships against the Urban Area victors they were unsuccessful. Donaldson’s team entered the Under 15 category but was also unsuccessful.

This was not a deterrent for the young goal keeper, who heard of a national Under 15 try- outs due totake place. His coach encouraged him, at the age of 14 to train with the young men preparing for the Under 19 Dacosta Cup category. This was all a part of his preparation. He trained even harder at the Under 15 Camp to prove himself worthy to be a part of the team. To his greatest joy he made the team in 2006. Though he was not given the opportunity to compete he still kept his hopes high. In 2008 the squad called back and a camp set up for qualifiers. Again young Leighton was determined to make it on the team. At the time he recalled that Rene Simoes, the Brazilian technical Director for the Reggae Boys’ team was back in Jamaica.

Each weekend he recalled training in the camp and as they added and dropped players, his skills kept him there. A nail-biting and an anxiety filled experience one would say. In that year, 2008, the team made it to Trinidad. In that game he was the Under 17 goal keeper in the league. The team got knocked out at the semi-finals and the baller from Mocho did not get the opportunity to go to the World Cup.

As he went back home to his school team, they entered the Dacosta Cup. During this same period Donaldson’s brother passed. As captain of the team 2009-2010 they did not make it to the Inter-zone qualifier. With all the disappointments and with CXC’s at hand, the keeper took a break from football. He was successful in his CXC’s completing eight CXC’s and passing all. Donaldson expressed how important it is for him to balance football and school, voicing his awareness of the interdependence between the two areas. In the same breath he encouraged other young athletes to keep the balance and leave none hanging. Sixth form was his next goal. He went into sixth form at Denbigh High school. In sixth form again the coach was his encouraging drive to apply for scholarships to move on to tertiary level education. Acknowledging the economic challenges that exist within his family young Donaldson knew that the goal of a university degree would be on his own shoulders. Student Loan to him was not an option; hence, a scholarship was the only means of financing his tertiary education. He attended a scholarship festival held at the University of the West Indies in January 2011. He went to a three weeks camp consisting of approximately 200 footballers. It consisted of scouts from various campuses across the island and around the world. In trying out Leighton indicated that he did not let them get to him he still tried out and did his best. From the 200 players, it reduced to 28 and Leighton was in that group.

UWI grew more and more interested in the young athlete and for a long while he had taken college off his mind. Due to the financial challenges, he had resigned to started working and taking care of himself.

At the camp however, Neville Bell, coach of the UWI Football team, had approached him and had taken his number. With things looking up for Donaldson he went home on the Saturday and started to apply for the university. In Leighton’s mind there were only two options; to go to UWI if the scholarship works out or to work. In March 2011 there was another trial for the 28 selected persons. He was again confident in his performance and left the trials with a hope of being called. Throughout the month of July many persons were being called for university and he was not. Feeling hopeless and anxious he applied to the HEARTS institute for a job. Still he was constantly contacting the UWI for hopes of receiving a scholarship and because of the uncertainty he went ahead and started working. As a result he felt as though this was a closed door. However, he did not give up hope.

The keeper spoke highly of his ‘Aunty Lone’ who assisted him throughout his rise with encouragement. The Environmental Biology Major and Preston resident wants nothing else but to make his family and church proud. He is thankful to his brother for pushing him from a very early stage and to his father for instilling the value of being a good man. His mother he speaks of as his confidant. The young man regrets being away from his church family and worries about the music now that he is away, but resides in the fact that they will have to go on without him. He expresses growing up with family prayer every morning as a base for his strength in mind and body.

His first competition was at the UWI-UTECH Classics in September in which UWI won. He looks forward to the Intercollegiate in Montego Bay on Saturday October 8, 2011. The young catalyst says he is the first from Denbigh High School to have ever gotten a full scholarship to the University, but he may be the first for many. He is truly a light rising from out of the west.