Crooks elated to be among chosen four

Chevaun Crooks experienced two contrasting emotions within a matter of minutes yesterday, as he was dragged from the jaws of disappointment into the inviting arms of unbridled joy after being advised that he had been chosen as one of four youngsters from the Jamaican leg of the Digicel KickStart Clinic, to journey to Trinidad and Tobago for a week-long training stint at the Digicel Academy from November 1-7.

Crooks' selection came after one of the boys initially selected was realised to have been over the age limit.

The other three boys who were selected for the academy, which will be conducted by coaches from English Premier League club Sunderland Academy and England and Liverpool football legend John Barnes, were Jamaica College's Steffon Logan, Tivoli Gardens High's Kadeem Williams and Waterford's Kevon Decon.

educational component

The Trinidad and Tobago-based academy will for the first time feature an educational component and will see at least four top preparatory schools from the United States sending scouts to identify prospective scholarship beneficiaries.

Shamar Dillon and Holy Trinity's Dominie James are still in with a chance of embarking upon the opportunity of a lifetime, as they topped the hot shot contest and now anxiously wait to see if their scores will emerge as the highest two among the winners of the said competition from the other seven participating regional countries. The boys with the two top scores will bring the number to 30 who will be coached at the academy.

Crooks, a 14-year-old Tarrant High student, was very relieved at being picked and is determined to make the most of the situation.

"I feel very elated and I am a good player, so I deserve to get this opportunity and I am going to make use of it," Crooks declared.

"I can't even eat my food, but I am really elated and I don't even know how I am going to sleep tonight," he added.

The two-day clinic, which was staged at Barbican Beach Football Field, was conducted by Barnes and national head coach Theodore Whitmore. It catered to 35 Jamaican youngsters, who were selected by the ISSA from schools currently participating in the Manning and daCosta Cup competitions. Despite the presence of 17-year-olds at the clinic, the persons chosen to go on to Trinidad and Tobago had to be between 14 and 16 years of age.

The clinics head coach, Barnes, believed the Jamaican boys were the best crop he saw from the eight areas in which clinics were staged, which include Haiti, Panama, New York, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

"They are of very good quality and I could have chosen six or seven boys," Barnes declared.

Digicel Sports Sponsorship Manager Paula Pinnock-McLeod deemed the clinic the best one over the four years.

"This is the first time we have done this on a regional basis, where so many boys will have the opportunity to display their skills for so many different institutions at the same time," Pinnock-McLeod outlined. "It is really up to them, now that they have been given the opportunity, to shine," she added.