When officials with the U.S. Virgin Islands Soccer Federation compared its junior national teams to those of other islands in the Caribbean, one thing stood out — the age at which the kids took up the sport.
That’s why the USVISF began emphasizing and strengthening its junior-level training programs, including a new partnership with the territory’s interscholastic athletics associations (IAAs).
The USVI Soccer Federation has begun providing equipment to all of the schools — public and private alike — that will field teams at either the elementary, junior varsity or varsity level in the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John IAAs this spring.
“At the end of the day, the difference between our athletes and the athletes from other countries has been the level of preparation, and from what days they were exposed to that level of preparation,” USVISF secretary general Firas Idheileh said Monday in an exclusive interview with The Daily News. “In any field, if I start when I’m [age] 8 versus when I’m 16, or versus when I’m 12, that individual who started at 8 is gonna have an advantage, no matter how you slice it.”
Schools that registered for the USVISF program will receive regulation soccer balls and ball bags, practice bibs and cones, and small goals (for use by elementary school teams).
Nearly two dozen schools from both the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John IAAs signed up for the program, according to Idheileh. The first batch of balls and equipment was delivered to St. Thomas and St. John schools Monday, with the St. Croix schools receiving equipment today.
Registered for the USVISF program so far from the St. Croix IAA are Alfredo Andrews and Lew Muckle elementary schools, Pearl B. Larsen K-8 School, John H. Woodson Junior High School, CJM Homeschooling Services, Church of God Holiness Academy, Good Hope Country Day School, Free Will Baptist Christian School, and Central and Educational Complex high schools.
Comments