By BVIFA

BDO Primary School League 2015. Photo: BVIFA

As the BVIFA’s BDO Primary School Leagues continued their Easter break, with a resumption scheduled for this week, not one team has been able to claim complete dominance in their respective divisions, with many schools still in with a shout of claiming top spots and in some cases upsetting the traditional ‘apple cart’.

In the most recent games in the U7 Group A, Enid Scatliffe Primary School Maroons went joint top with a 2-1 win over Alexandrina Maduro Primary, who stay third, thanks to Antonio Bramble, who netted twice inside the first 8 minutes to allow his team to weather a late storm from AMPS to secure victory. The Maroons also beat Montessori, 2-0 on a brace by Mario Carter.

Two goals from T’Mari Nanton gave Begrado Flax Educational Centre a comfortable 2-0 win over Enid Scatliffe Primary Teal and T’Khoy Morton’s double also handed BFEC all 3 points against Montessori, with the final score being 3-0, to leap frog AMPS into second place.

In U7’s group B play, Robinson O’Neal Primary grabbed the top spot with a 4-0 romp against ESPS Red’s with a Jaden Quashie hat trick completing the scoring after Remauri Walters had given them the lead. Claudia Creque Primary stays in touch of the league leaders following a 5-0 victory over First Impressions 2. Henrique Warren’s hat trick sandwiching two goals from Shamaar Tomlinson. Joyce Samuel Primary cemented second place in the standings after Ganton Grant’s hat trick and Michael Findlay’s solo effort proved too much for Cedar Green.

In the Under 9’s Cedar International School are atop both Divisions albeit by slim margins

In Under 13 action, Cedar School White claimed a share of second place in Group A, beating Robinson O’Neal Primary, 8-1. Kirk Scott netted four times, Stephen Weyers twice and Noah Leese and Conor McCullum a goal apiece. At the bottom of the Standings, Willard Wheatley Primary School grabbed their first win of the season, 2-1, over Pelican Gate, with J’Khoi Smith scoring both. The Seven Day Adventists also joined the mix at the top with a 4-0 win over Enis Adams thanks to two goals each from Denvin Jones and Keon Sampson.

Meanwhile in Group B, Cedar Green gave themselves a little breathing space at the top with an 8-0 rout of St Mary’s Primary. Luca Reich scored three, Nathan Haycraft two and a goal each came from RJ Wong, Alelandro Santos and Lawton Green.

By VINO

New BVIFA Technical Director Katie Rowson will be attending the first CONCACAF u13 7 v 7 Girls Tournament in Antigua as part of a new initiative to expand the Female game across the Region. Photo: VINO/File

The first CONCACAF Girls Football Tournament (7 v 7) takes place at the Antigua Recreation Ground (ARG) on Saturday April 11, 2015 and the BVIFA’s new Technical Director, Katie Rowson, will be in attendance.

The tournament is just one aspect of a slew of events taking place over the weekend with an opening ceremony planned for Friday night at the Multipurpose and Exhibition Cultural Center and a female coaches workshop slated for Friday April 10, 2015.

The sessions will be conducted by CONCACAF Instructor Heather Dyche, who outlined the ultimate purpose for the initiative. “Antigua has done a great job of already creating a grassroots programme and a U-13 league so we are down here just to support them and help to run a 7v7 tournament and do everything we can to help grow the league,” she said. “What we want to do is help grow four things. One is their technical ability on how to run sessions, plan sessions and how to team. The second part is the tactical aspect so we will look at formations, understanding the game, in-game coaching and the other two pieces are the psychological and physical part of coaching females that tend to be a little different from coaching males so we just help to identify those and then really hope that we help the candidates to leave better coaches.”

Coordinator of the women’s programme, Gwen Salmon, echoed Dyche’s sentiments that the initiative is one that will serve to improve the FA’s ability to produce quality female players and coaches.

“It’s going to help us to expand our grassroots programme we have on Saturday mornings so this is going to be beneficial to the women’s department of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association and I am excited and I am just looking forward to the games on the weekend,” she said.

Encouraging females
Meanwhile, President of the ABFA Everton Gonsalves said having the first instalment of the CONCACAF tournament will serve to encourage more females to get involved in football.

“I want to express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to CONCACAF for ensuring Antigua is granted this pilot project. As you know, our mandate is all about the development of football in general but female football holds a special place in our hearts and we want to ensure that Antigua is keeping pace with the rest of our colleagues throughout the region and internationally in terms of female football development,” he said.

The tournament will commence on April 10, 2015 with a presentation on “football for girls” for the parents. The matches will be played on April 11 and 12, 2015.

Sixteen teams from schools across Antigua and Barbuda are currently in the programme and 10 clubs from the ABFAmembership will compete in the open age category.

Also attending the tournament will be heads of female programmes from the Leeward Islands member associations which are Montserrat, Anguilla, USVI, BVI, St Kitts and Nevis and St Maarten.