The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

The last week and-a-half has been pretty phenomenal for 14-year-old Issa Bournas, who not only had a good showing at the Bahamas Aquathlon and Triathlon National Championships but also dominated competitors at the Samuel P Haven Jr High School Soccer Nationals. 

The eighth grader, who attends Lyford Cay International School, played a pivotal role in helping the Lady Dragons to improve from last year’s early tournament exit to a championship finish against the St Andrew’s Hurricanes.

She concluded the tournament with 11 total goals, which made it an easy decision for her to be named the winner of the Golden Boot and Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards.

Bournas gave insight on what made it so easy for her to successfully fire the ball to the back of the net against multiple teams.

“I feel like the way that my team plays is the reason why I was always able to score all of those goals. It is just the way that they were able to pass the ball and get it to me so that I can finish it for them,”  she said.

She gave the defenders of the CV Bethel Stingrays, CR Walker Knights and St Andrew’s Hurricanes problems all tournament long. 

Her success in the tourney began with her memorable performance against the Stingrays.

In the opening game of the tourney, Bournas scored six goals, five of which were earned in the first half, in the 14-0 shutout against CV Bethel. The versatile athlete then got a go-ahead goal in the final minutes of regulation time against the Lady Knights to propel the Lady Dragons 2-1 and hand the defending champions their first loss of the season.

In the final stage of the competition, the Lyford Cay student rose to the occasion once again. She closed out her tournament experience by sending 4 goals past St Andrew’s goalkeeper in the title game. Her team kept the clean sheet and won the match 7-0 in the end.

She said it felt very good to capture the title with the team this season. “It was a really good feeling. Last year we weren’t able to make it to the finals but this year we put a really good team on the pitch so we were able to have a really good season,” she said.

As far as the MVP and Golden Boots honors, Bournas said she really put in a lot of practice and effort to get to this point with her teammates.

“It feels really good. I put a lot of practice and effort into this and my teammates really helped me a lot with it,” she said.

The MVP is hoping that the Lady Dragons’ celebration is something that they could have a good time doing together and that next year they can win it all again. 

The 14-year-old might be done with soccer season but is now looking to reign supreme at the upcoming 2024 CARIFTA Triathlon and Aquathlon Championships to be hosted in Barbados August 17-18. 

She was named to the girls 13-15 division of the CARIFTA Aquathlon and Triathlon team.