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Mona Prep & Post-St.G.C. Years.

Math Instructor/Sports-master - Martin Woodstock
Employment
Just hanging out with friends
Boy meets Girl
LUIGI RIVA - 1970 World Cup

Luigi’s very first job was the “twin title” of Math teacher and sportsmaster at the Mona Preparatory school. The irony of this is not lost on the fact that here was a public-school educated (albeit also educated at one of the top academic high schools - St. GC) young man from the not-so-elite class entrusted with the education of private-school kids from the “privileged” class.

In addition to achieving significant passing rates among his pupils, Luigi, notably, nurtured and developed the astounding skills later parlayed at the Manning Cup and national team levels by the legendary midfield maestro Martin Woodstock. Every day, it seemed like back then, Luigi would come home singing the praises of this “…. wassy likkle youth who gwine mash down the JA football scene….”. prophetic words which, due to the early mentoring by Luigi, came to pass as “Woodie” led his J.C. team to the Manning Cup title and later “walked onto” the National team while still a teenager. So… apart from Luigi’s astute devoted mentoring of his highly acclaimed siblings Richard, Kenneth, and Michael, he also should be given equal credit for “shepherding” the formative stages of Woodie’s soccer career. Years later when Richard & Michael housed Woodie while he tried out for the vaunted Howard University soccer team, Woodie commented “…. Hey guys, I remember my very first coach was a Mr. Davey… was he related to you guys??? well… you know the answer.

SWALLOWFIED MINOR LEAGUE
After his Colts soccer exploits at St. GC, Luigi had hung around noted St. GC alumnus Keith “Skip” Noad who was informally assisting National Senior Team coach George “Mr. T” Thompson with an Under 16 (U-16) group and so when Skip collaborated with the Kingston & St. Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) to create the Minor League (U-17) competition Skip immediately tabbed Luigi as his Goal-keeper for the Swallowfield entry (see SOCCER page within this site for more details).

Fatherhood came in 1968, when Luigi “blessed” his parents with their first grand-son Mark (there goes another of those “firsts”) and his maternal grand-ma with her first great grandson. This was to be the first of thirteen (13) kids to be fathered by Luigi.

LUIGI NOW AND FOREVER (adios……Black Spider)
During the 1970 World Cup finals held in Mexico City, Glen, his siblings and a host of other neighborhood kids (see SOCCER page for list) remained “glued” to the small TV at the Davey’s Beatriz Crescent household. Like all starry-eyed kids we were mesmerized by the vast array of talented teams and individuals. So Brazil, Italy, West Germany (Germany was divided at the time) and Uruguay as semi-finalists had almost equal following amongst Luigi and his friends but Glen was totally enthralled by the creative Italian team and especially by their burly, speedy, cunning, bustling left winger LUIGI “GIGI” RIVA. So…. with Glen vociferously cheering on RIVA’S every fantastic move all the way through to the final game which pitted Brazil-vs-Italy, younger sibling started calling him Luigi and boy did it ever “stick”. Then, due to the natural JA tendency for the best of nicknames to “evolve/mutate”, intuitive variations surfaced such as: “Uigi” (Weegie), “Snap-uigi” (snap-weegie),
“I-uigi” (Hi-weegie), “Squigi” (Squeegie) so… from 1970 until his uniting with The Father Glen has/will be forever …LUIGI

Most evenings, especially during the summer and after playing soccer all day, the many friends of Luigi and his siblings would just gather late into the night at Luigi’s house at 24 Beatriz Crescent (off of the Waltham Pk. Rd.) and when all got tired of playing ping-pong, dominoes or cards we would just sit on the nearby fences with make-shift guitars and just sing into the wee hours of the morning. Among those hanging out were Lloyd “Young Ben” McIntosh (Gleaner reporter), Phillip “Burr” Martin (a gifted, melodious lead singer of the “Yard-birds” RIP) and younger brother Norman "Thurston" Martin, Neville “Tinga” (Trainah) Stewart (Jamaica’s Percy sledge), Barry “Happy” Gail, Tony Grey, Dorset ("Pone") & Patrick (Dingwal/Satius) Johnson, Noel “Coach” Thompson, "Prince" (Jago)George “Preps” & "Rocky" O’Meally, Errol Stewart (Olympic sprinter while still at XLCR), Ricky & Donovan Thomas, Calvin "Webba" Stewart (click Here for photo of Luigi & Webba) , Glen “Mr. B” Bowlin (National TT Champion while still at KC), Earl Foster (Lucas Senior Cup batsman), Milton & Trevor “Shorty” Brown, Maxie Burton (vocalist supreme), Edward “Moses” Campbell, Wentworth "Chips" Cope, Leopold "Bushrod" Allen, Valley, Donald & Herman (RIP) Blake, "Vava-Blue", O’Neil “Ranny” & Georgie "legsman" Wilson, Clive "Lele" Bariffe, George "Jumpy" Hinds, Carol "Waggon", Atlee Lindo (RIP), etc.

FAREWELL VATICAN….. FOREVER TWELVE TRIBES
After about a three year stint at Mona Prep, Luigi "switched” jobs fairly frequently for several years and sort of embarked on the typical JA youth “search” to find himself, to find a (some??) mate(s), and also to find something that could “anchor” him more securely to his “roots” much more so than the euro-centric, dogmatic tenets of the Catholic religion of his Dad………