Admirers remember “Whoppy” Valentine – midfield maestro and fast-bowler

Calvin “Whoppy” Valentine, the midfield wizard for the Reno Football Club and Jamaica in the 1980s who died in late May, was such a good cricketer he “would have made it to the end,” says former national cricket coach Junior Bennett.

“He was a very good pace bowler … fast and agile,” Bennett said of Valentine, who played for Jamaica's under-19 cricket team in the early 1980s.

Significantly, it was Valentine’s skill to “the [football] dead” with the chest, which seemed to elicit the greatest admiration from Bennett as he recently reminisced.

“Whoppy picked up the ball with his back to the goal, twisted it around as if it was glued to his chest and then rolled it down for a shot,” said Bennett, who was a young cricket coach at St. Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) in the early 1980s.

At that time, Valentine represented STETHS and played football in the daCosta Cup and cricket in the Headley Cup.

Valentine, a native of Old Harbour Bay, St. Catherine, had transferred to STETHS from Clarendon College, where he had also played football and cricket as a student.

Lynval “Palla” Wilson, another former Reno and Jamaica defender who played against Valentine in college and alongside him at club and national levels, was equally impressed with his chest control.

“When Valentine touched the ball on his chest, no matter what speed, you had to beg him to take it away… 'Please, Whoppy, put the ball away'…” joked Wilson, who represented Vere Technical High School in both football and cricket.

He also praised Valentine – who usually advanced down the right side of Reno’s midfield – as an excellent passer who “put the ball on point for [striker] Michael Graham…“

Dave Wright, a Reno fan now living in the United States who followed the club religiously in the 1980s and 90s, remembers Valentine as a goalscorer of immense value. “He was an authoritative, robust midfielder with a powerful right foot who could shoot from anywhere outside the box,” Wright told Jamaica Observer from Whatsapp text message.

Wendell Downswell, a mesmerizing dribbler who played for Jamaica and coached national teams at senior and junior levels, coached in Reno in the 1980s and early 1990s when he was still playing. He described Valentine as “super-talented” and “a student of the game” with “keen technical and tactical awareness.”

Downswell is still amazed by Valentine’s ability to hold the ball on his chest “… as if glued to it…”

A cousin, Shane Elliott, told the observer that Valentine, who grew up in a sporting environment in Old Harbour Bay, was also an excellent table tennis player.

Valentine attended Old Harbour Bay Primary, Old Harbour Secondary and Clarendon College before moving to STETHS where he was part of the star-studded football team led by Oliver Clue.

At STETHS he excelled as a right-handed fast bowler and, along with left-handed pacer Kenneth “Snake” McLeod, dominated all other players in school cricket. At that time the STETHS cricket team was managed by the current President of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), Dr. Donovan Bennett, with the young Junior Bennett (no relation) as his assistant.

“He was the best fast bowler to come through STETHS in my time,” said Dr Bennett. “Not only was he very quick and aggressive, he was just as quick at the end of a long spell as he was at the beginning… I think he would have played for the West Indies if he had stayed in cricket,” added the JCA President.

Valentine and McLeod played the new ball together for Jamaica in regional under-19 cricket in the West Indies before the former made the difficult decision to concentrate solely on football.

“I think he just loved football more,” said Junior Bennett, who remembers Valentine playing Senior Cup cricket for St. Catherine Cricket Club.

But friends remember that for years Valentine sometimes wondered out loud whether he had made the right choice.

In addition to playing club soccer (in Clarendon, St. Catherine and Reno in Westmoreland) and for his country, Valentine also played soccer professionally in Canada.

Both Elliott and Valentine's ex-wife and childhood sweetheart Hilary, whom he married in 1996 – the marriage ended in divorce years later – remember him going to Canada as a seasonal player for several years.

Relatives and friends said Valentine died in hospital on May 29 from complications of a stroke at his Old Harbour Bay home, shortly after his 60th birthday.

Funeral services are planned for Monday, July 29th at 1:00 p.m. at Old Harbour Bay Baptist Church. Burial will be in the family plot in Wilkie Town in Old Harbour Bay.

Valentine leaves behind a daughter, Jenesis, and a son, Kristoff.