This weekend's 22nd All-Star schools matches will be dedicated to former educator and sports figure Randy Benjamin, who passed away last week.

Benjamin's funeral is scheduled for Saturday, at the same time the All-Star matches will be held at National Stadium.

Included in the programme, which kicks off at noon with the primary schools All-Star match, is the first ever middle school game at 1.30, while the feature match will involve a select from high schools Berkeley, Saltus, MSA and Warwick Academy taking on CedarBridge at 3.00.

Because of light problems at National Stadium, the matches have been switched from the traditional Friday night to Saturday afternoon.

There are other challenges, too, facing organisers but Bermuda Schools Sports Federation chairman Jon Beard is confident the matches will meet a high standard.

"One is we've been, for two years, without an administrator,'' explained Beard. "Clint Smith was the administrator but has been promoted to PE officer and the position has not been filled.

"Although Clint has been able to help before, he has not been able to help at all this year. There is no longer anybody doing it so it has been left to people who are teaching full-time to maintain the programme, and it's been very difficult.'' College student Dyke Lawrence is on an internship for his Bachelor's Degree in Sports Management at Thomas College and has been carrying out much of the organisational work.

"If we hadn't got him I don't know what would have happened,'' said Beard.

"He has been able to pull things together for us.

"To be fair to the staff, everybody has put all hands on deck and are trying.

But when you have a full teaching load as well it is very difficult to get it to that level. You need somebody full-time, otherwise the quality of the programme tends to drop.'' The Secondary Schools All-Stars match has enabled college coaches to scout local talent over the last two decades, but the number of visiting coaches will be down this year.

"We haven't got the number of coaches coming that we've had in the past, simply because we haven't been able to get hold of them,'' said the chairman.

"The advance PR is not as advanced as we would like it to be and the running of it is not at the level we were able to get it to when we had a full time officer. Clint Smith is no longer involved in the extra-curricular sports, he's involved in the day-to-day teaching of PE.'' With work going on at the National Stadium as the Sports Centre enters another phase, the field will also not be available for the International Youth tournament there in July.

"In terms of the All-Stars, I think the level of football is going to be extremely good again but there are some people at CedarBridge who, although they represent their clubs, do not represent CedarBridge so those boys will not be able to play,'' said Beard who, along with Arnold Manders, will coach the opposition.

All the All-Star teams are expected to finalised today or tomorrow.