Each year there is a big football (soccer) tournament held at the National sports fields called the Kappa Classic. This was the first year Warwick Academy entered a team in the under 8 division and so was also Josh’s first year to participate in the big event! Josh’s regular team, the U8 Grizzlies, had a pretty successful year, and hoped for a strong showing at this end-of-season event.
It was held during the Easter break, so unfortunately a few of Josh’s regular teammates were unable to make it due to their being off-island. The roster of 9 kids had 5 from his usual team and 4 from the younger squad, the U8 Kodiaks.
Most of the opposing teams were non-school clubs, they tend to practice a bit more and perhaps at times are a little ‘over serious’… but Warwick holds their own and often more throughout the various age groups, which is great to see!
The boys’ first game on Friday evening, our Grizzlies fell to Dandy Town in what was a pretty decent game, 1-0. We nearly tied it up at the last play of the game, but the crossbar got in the way and the ball unluckily bounced out instead of in! Later on that evening they played their second game, this time against the Devonshire Cougars under the bright stadium lights. They seemed to pick their play up a bit from the first game, showing they were not going to go down this time! After a few near misses from our boys we walked away with a 0-0 tie – we thought we deserved a win! Next time…
Game #3 was on Saturday morning against Valencia, who were leading their pool at this stage with a win and a tie under their belt so far. I think our boys must have still been a little sleepy, however, as Valencia took it to us in a 4-1 loss. Freddie scored our first and only goal of the tournament so far, but the boys were not used to losing much this year and weren’t too happy with how things were going…
Hoping to salvage their tournament with one win, they put in a little better effort against Hamilton Parish. Josh was a striker for part of this game and after a good effort and a few near misses was able to put away a beauty of a corner kick! That, unfortunately, was our only goal and the highlight of the game as the opposition had the momentum and came away with a 4-1 win. Sadly, that was the end of our boys’ Kappa tournament for this year.
I think it was pretty fun for the boys and overall a good experience – the games were complete with lots of loud fans, tough opponents, questionable calls (or non-calls) by the referees, and they played a few games in a row on both days which is something new… (with the exception of Freddie, who had played last year, they should all know what to expect next year)!
Our U8 Kappa team this year (L-R): Youenn, Miles, Dante, William, Jake, Freddie, Ryan, Callum, and Josh. Missing are coaches Andy and Jason!
Until next year…!