MVPs battle: Trident Trust Cedar School Sharks' Alec Anderson and Amicorp Willard Wheatley Wolves Dante Blair  respective MVPs for their teams - battle for control of the ball during the second half of Saturday's match which the Sharks won 3-2

Cedar beats Willard Wheatley for Primary Schools Soccer title

BY DEAN GREENAWAY

Roger Carter, coordinator of the inaugural BVI Football Association Primary Schools Soccer tournament, described the Trident Trust Cedar School Sharks 3-2 victory over the Amicorp Willard Wheatley Wolves for the title as ‘fantastic.’

“Two goals in the last minute, a great comeback,” he lamented. “I think this game was a great culmination to the program. It really showed the skills they have been learning over the last two months. But was a great game between the two strongest schools on the island.”

Carter noted that both teams made the finals of the Easter tournament which Willard Wheatley won. A week later, Cedar beat Willard Wheatley at a beach tournament. “Today, Cedar had the upper hand,” Carter observed. “But, it’s a great rivalry between two strong schools and hopefully, it will continue for a long time.”

Willard Wheatley got the scoring going when Eugene Penn gave them a 1-0 halftime lead. Cedar evened the score early in the second half on Mark Krowel’s goal. Willard Wheatley who controlled the tempo, took a 2-1 edge on Kadeem Forde’s score and kept the pressure on before one of their player was penalized. Cedar’s Alec Anderson scored on the penalty to even the match at 2-2. They secured victory when Chris Brockbank scored a legger in the final minute.

Carter who started the program in October, said the BVI was a new place to visit and a new scheme to set up. “It takes a while to get to know the schools and how things worked. It has been a lot of learning,” he acknowledged. “But, things happened pretty quickly. There were 78 children in the program by December. Now we have 150 on Tortola. We’ve set up and now they’re running their own programs on Virgin Gorda and we’ve also done things on Jost Van Dyke. So it’s well over 200 playing soccer. I think it has gone well.”

Carter said while the youngsters have improved their soccer skills, they have learnt valuable lessons. “They are more organized, they are starting to turn up to practice and games on time. They’ve made new friends from different schools and backgrounds. They’ve improved their communication skills, all the types of things to make them better individuals. It’s about becoming better people as well as better players.”

The program resumes in September when school reopens. Carter says the aim is to develop under 13 and under 15 teams to participate in tournaments in Barbados and Antigua next year.

Besides the winners, awards presented following the game included Montessori Magic who beat the Althea Scatliffe Scorpions 2-1 for third place. The league’s top goal scorer  was Montessori Magic’s  George Fay who won the Golden Boot Award for leading the league with 12 goals. Team MVPs are as follows: Althea Scatliffe Scorpions, Kimone Mills. Trident Trust Cedar Sharks, Alec Anderson. Amicorp Willard Wheatley Wolves, Dante Blair. Montessori Magic, George Fay. AMS Ivan Dawson Reds, Gordon Nyugen.

Trident Trust Leonora Deville Dynamos, Joshua Rathanum. Nagico St George’s/Belle Vue Blues, Rown Victor & Jomel Warrican.
SPECIAL AWARD - to the three youngest players, all 5 yr olds
Aiteina Mitchell (Montessori Magic)
Joash Victor (Nagico St George’s/Belle Vue Blues)
Malik "Harry" Potter (Trident Trust Leonora Deville Dynamos)