SHOWN, left to right, Hadassah Knowles, women’s national team player, Daria Adderley, women’s national team coach, James Gomez, Aliv boss, Fred Lunn, BFA general secretary, Minister of Youth, Sport and of Culture, Mario Bowleg, Gavin Christie, Men’s National Team Head Coach, Kelsie Johnson, Director of Sport, Lesly St Fleur, Men’s National Team Head Coach and Anya James, BFA Executive Vice President.
By RENALDO DORSETT
Tribune Sports Journalist
Beach soccer returns to the shores of the Bahamas as the country’s men’s and women’s teams compete against their counterparts across the region this weekend.
The Bahamas Soccer Association and Soccer Beach Worldwide will host the Bahamas Beach Soccer Cup, October 21-23 at the National Beach Soccer Stadium, at the foot of the Sir Sidney Poitier Bridge.
The men’s division includes the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia and Costa Rica while in the women’s division the Bahamas will compete against Trinidad and Turks and Caicos.
Gates open at 16:00 each day and the first game starts at 18:00. Admission to the general public is free.
Both coaches of the Bahamas team called it an exciting moment for local beach soccer as the players await an eager return to the field.
Women’s head coach Daria Adderley said the event is an opportunity to showcase the young program, ranked No. 18 by BSWW.
“This is our first international tour here in the Bahamas, so for the women here who will be playing, they are very excited for the country to see them perform,” she said.
“We played in a tournament in El Salvador a few months ago and had a very good performance. We want the country to know that women are just as good as men, even better in some aspects.”
Forward Hadassah Knowles added: “We’ve been training really hard, the team chemistry is at its peak so we have nothing but high hopes for this tournament. “I am very happy that I will play for my country in front of the national team and it is a fantastic opportunity, so I am very excited.”
The team will face Turks and Caicos on October 22 and Trinidad and Tobago on October 23.
The men’s national team program is currently ranked #38 by BSWW. Colombia is ranked highest in the tournament at number 26 while Costa Rica is no. 52. Trinidad and Tobago is at no. 54.
They will open the competition on October 21 against Trinidad and Tobago, followed by a match against Costa Rica the following day and conclude on the final day against Colombia.
Gavin Christie has moved from the sand to the sidelines and will serve as a coach for the first time.
“Beach soccer is finally coming back to the Bahamas. “Unfortunately with everything that happened with COVID, the sport had to sit down for a while, we’ve been out for almost two years, so now finally coming back to our shores we’re excited,” he said.
“This is my first step away from being a player, into a coaching role and I’m excited as a new venture. This team is excited, they have been looking for an opportunity to play. The last time we played was away and it was pre-Covid, so we haven’t played at home at this level since the World Cup. The team is ready, we’re in the fine-tuning phase, just a few days left working on the tactical stuff to make sure we’re ready to go.”
Veteran striker Lesly St Fleur said: “We are preparing. We have trained, but we haven’t played enough games. Happy to have the games here and we can present ourselves to the country.”
ALIV will serve as the Konch Shell Title Sponsor for the event.
“As the home of entertainment in the Bahamas, we consider it our business to support local entities like the BFA. We are proud to offer premium content to our subscribers through Our TV and also our Direct TV platform. We’re offering outdoor sponsorship over WiFi so event attendees can share their experiences live with friends and family members who aren’t here with them,” said Aliv CEO John Gomez. “We are proud to always support organizations like this, and we will continue to invest in the community, so we want to encourage the public to come out because it is so meaningful to encourage, give and support our athletes.”
Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg said he hopes this event will be a catalyst for the growth of sports throughout the country.
“The event is expected to be exciting for everyone and we should all support our national teams in their return to international competition. The Bahamas has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. This sport, which showcases our amazing nature and athletic expertise – we hope this event will be a catalyst for this sport to grow across the family islands and for beach soccer to be enjoyed by Bahamians on every island,” he said.
“The country also has the only world-class beach soccer stadium in the region, and as Bahamians, we must hope that our country will continue to host world-class events in paradise.”
The Bahamas hosted the 2017 World Cup event as well as the 2018 Bahamas Beach Soccer Cup.
BFA general secretary Fred Lunn said the ongoing legacy of hosting these marquee events provides unparalleled exposure.
“This event will be broadcast in 130 countries around the world, so we will have tremendous exposure. Other countries will be watching what is happening here, especially those in the CONCACAF region. We are looking to be one of the countries that will submit a bid to host the World Cup Qualifiers here in 2023. We did that a few years ago and it was a tremendous success. It was the biggest viewership of any event CONCACAF has ever hosted, so we hope to repeat it. When we hosted the World Cup here in 2017, we had about 54,000 locals attend that event,” he said. , our players, our fans, the BFA team has been working around the clock to ensure the success of this upcoming event.”
