OFFICIALS gather at yesterday’s press conference to announce the return of national high school soccer championships May 19-27.
By TENAJH SWEETING
tsweeting@tribunemedia.net
THE national high school soccer championships will return May 19-27.
The soccer championships were derailed for three years but now there is renewed excitement surrounding the return of the hands-free sport.
This year’s championships will feature 16 teams of eight boys and eight girls scheduled to compete.
The nationals are being held by the Bahamas Football Association (BFA), in conjunction with the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture (MOYSC) in honour of the late Samuel P Haven Jr.
The teams from New Providence, Abaco and Grand Bahama will all showcase their best soccer skills.
Anton Sealey, president of the BFA, talked about the excitement surrounding the return of the soccer championships this May.
“We are very excited to revive the Samuel P Haven Soccer Championships. We have been slow in coming back around but we are back and in a big way,” Sealey said.
The president said that he is excited to see some of our major islands in competition and it is the goal of the association to incorporate more Family Islands in the future.
The majority of this year’s championship costs will be funded by the BFA. The competition is set to feature four quarter finals.
The Abaco champions will travel to Grand Bahama to play and then the team will commute to New Providence for the nationals.
In New Providence, the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) winners will battle against the third best Government Secondary Schools Sports Association (GSSSA) soccer team.
Additionally, the winner of GSSSA will match up against the third place BAISS soccer team. The second overall teams will showdown against each other. The games will be 25 minutes per half for the girls and 40 minutes per half for the boys’ gameplay. Fans can also expect to see an overall Most Valuable Player (MVP) selected after the championships making for an exciting competition.
Lionel Haven, brother of the late Samuel Haven Jr, talked about how he felt about his brother’s legacy being carried on by the BFA at this event.
“This event gives the opportunity for his legacy to live on and so I am very pleased. I know the family is quite pleased we intend to show up in great numbers to the upcoming event even if it’s in Freeport to ensure we support what the BFA is doing to support his legacy,” Haven said.
With the 2023 BAISS soccer champions already crowned and the 2023 GSSSA soccer season underway, both associations believe that their schools will reign supreme. The Queen’s College
Comets took home the hardware for the junior and the senior girls. The junior boys championships belong to the St Andrew’s International School Hurricanes and the Lyford Cay International School Dragons claimed the senior boys title.
The BFA president encourages Bahamians to come out to an exciting family-friendly event to support the local and Family Island athletes.
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