Over the weekend, football fans came out in their numbers and were treated to a festival of football at Mannie Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella. Under glorious sunny skies, the curtain came down on the NLCL Concept Coaching Community Summer Cup for Under 11 boys. The tournament was co-hosted by NLCL Community Cup Chairman, Brian K. Jordan, and Concept Coaching President and Director, Roger Smith.
Arima’s Creek Sport & Cultural Club, coached by Lincoln Augustus, were crowned Champions of the first ever NLCL Concept Coaching Community Summer Cup.
After the quarterfinal round robin playoff on Saturday, Trincity Nationals found themselves the lone team out of the semi-finals, leaving four semifinalist qualifiers: Point Fortin Youth Football Academy, Trendsetter Hawks, QPCC, and Creek Sport & Cultural Club to go forward to the seeded matchups on Sunday.
On Sunday, following an opening goal by Creek’s Jelani Marchan, first seed Point Fortin Youth Football Academy equalized via an own goal by the fourth seeded Creek Sport & Cultural Club defense. After a 1-1 fulltime score, during the resulting penalty shootout, and after all 15 penalties had exhausted sudden death kicks, the teams agreed to a coin toss, and fourth seeded Creek emerged victorious. In the second semi-final game, third seeded QPCC were 1-0 winners over Northern rivals and second seed, Trendsetter Hawks. Skipper Callum Trestrail scored the lone item for QPCC in the keenly contested affair.
Later in the day, in the third place game, Point Fortin Youth Football Academy ran out 3-1 winners over Trendsetter Hawks, with a Jamali St Hilaire double along with a Trinity Swift item. Judea Phillip scored for Trendsetter Hawks.
Whilst in the very competitive Championship game, Creek used a staunch defense to hold QPCC to a 0-0 draw at full-time. In the resulting penalty shootout, big saves by Creek goalkeeper, Daniel Ramlal allowed them to win the Championship 3-2 on penalties.
Started in July of this year, the tournament has featured the biggest and best youth clubs and academies across Trinidad & Tobago in the Under 11 boys age category. The inaugural youth football tournament was sponsored in large part by Next Level Consulting Limited, Next Level Foundation, Concept Coaching, as well as, Ramsingh’s Sports World.
Concept Coaching is a youth football academy based in Arima, with years of experience in youth competitions and tournaments for youths between the ages of 7 and 17. President and Director, Roger Smith stated, “We have delivered a wonderful development opportunity by partnering with NLCL Community Cup. We want to thank all of our teams, coaches and supporters for believing in this tournament. Congratulations to our first ever Champions from Arima, Creek Sport & Cultural Club.”
The Next Level Foundation is a registered non-profit charity. Originally started in 2019, for Under 19 footballers, the NLCL Community Cup has become the nation’s largest private charitable youth tournaments. Currently, more than one thousand young footballers are able to benefit nationwide from the youth development opportunities and nutritional hampers being provided under the umbrella organization.
NLCL Community Cup Chair, Brian K. Jordan explained, “This partnership has been extremely gratifying. Both of the entities partnering to host this tournament are strong believers in the potential of our young talented footballers nationwide. As community and grassroots charitable organizations, we hope and anticipate more and more private youth tournaments like this will be coming on stream to aid in improving our national teams and their global ranking.”
Congratulations to tournament Award Winners
Best Coach – Lincoln Augustus (Creek Sport & Cultural Club)
Most Goals - Andel Khan - 9 goals (Trendsetter Hawks)
Best Midfielder – Kayden Rosalis (QPCC)
Best Defender – Shahzaad Springer (Creek Sport & Cultural Club)
Best Goalkeeper – Trinity Swift (Point Fortin Youth Football Academy)
Most Valuable Player – Kayden Rosalis (QPCC)
The Tournament Organizers wish to thank the extremely generous sponsors and partners, namely, Next Level Consulting Limited, Next Level Foundation, Concept Coaching, Holiday Snacks, S.M. Jaleel and Ramsingh’s Sports World.
For More Information: Mr. Brian K. Jordan, NLCL (868) 389-0516 | Mr. Roger Smith, Concept Coaching (868) 292-3618