| April
24th, 2003
Academy SC shows how it’s done
At the end of the 2002-03 Queensgate
youth football season Academy Sports Club walked away
with three of the four titles.
They have emerged as the season’s Under 14 and
Under 17 league champions losing only three of the twenty
matches they played. Earlier this season on May 5th,
they handed GTSC a 5-1 beating to take home the Under
14 FA Cup title as well.
Coach Winston Chung, a former National
Coach for the Jamaican football team, has been working
with Academy’s youth for over five years, two
while the club was CNB Football Club and the latter
three after the name change to Academy Sports Club.
His endeavors to instill discipline,
drive and self-esteem in his players over the years
have paid off.
Reflecting on his team’s preparation
Coach Chung says, “This thing started three years
ago. We entered two under 14 teams and got a lot of
licks. Everybody likes to have instant coffee, but too
many believe it just falls from the sky. Not so, you
have to plant a seed and when the bean matures you have
to reap it and process it.”
He added that, “the program
goes deeper than the Cup, I go for the total person.
When these young boys leave Academy they must be citizens
that are contributing to the system.”
Academy Sports Club has made an effort to not only pass
on a love for the game but also to mold their players’
academic development. The club currently runs an after
school program for all it’s members where players
are given assistance with home work as well as additional
assignments catering to their individual needs.
“This was a planned program,
nothing happens in one day – the boys have stayed
the course and reaped the benefits. I am hoping that
they will stay the rest of the course and get a tertiary
education out of this,” Says Chung.
Academy player Ariel Tatum, who left
on scholarship in 2001 for Holderness Prep School in
New Hampshire, moves on to the University of Wheaton
in Boston this September while Trevor Gibbs is scheduled
to leave for Hotchkiss Prep School in Connecticut in
August.
The league standings at the
end of the Queensgate season are as follows:
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