Montverde player found soccer after Hurricane Ivan hit home in Caymans
By Alicia DelGallo, From Orlando Sentinel
Chelsea Greene recently played for the Cayman Islands women’s U20 national team.
MONTVERDE — The flight attendant said it was time, and 7-year-old Chelsea Greene was led away from her mother for the first time.
With tears in her eyes, the girl was told to be brave as she boarded the plane.
“I was scared,” said Greene, now 16. “My family was home in the hurricane, so I didn’t know what to think.”
As Hurricane Ivan bore down on the Caribbean with top winds of more than 155 mph in 2004, Greene and her two brothers, then 5 and 9, were sent from their home in the Cayman Islands to live with their grandmother in Camp Hill, Pa. From the destruction left behind by the powerful storm in the Caymans — estimated at $1.85 billion in damage by the National Hurricane Center — something was born.
While in Pennsylvania, Greene discovered her love of soccer. That has led to a spot as a starting defender on Montverde Academy’s girls team and an appearance for the Cayman Islands’ under-20 women’s national team, which hosted a 10-day tournament this month to decide three spots in the FIFA under-20 World Cup in Canada in July.
The Cayman Islands finished 0-3 in the eight-team event won by the United States.
“The national teams for some of these small islands aren’t like the U.S. or Canada,” Montverde coach Robbie Aristodemo said. “The level is much different. The opportunity to play against other countries that are better, you just don’t get that.
“Even though they didn’t do great, the experience and memories will last forever.”
Said Greene: “I love how I feel when I’m playing [soccer]. Everything just goes away.”
The hurricane ripped the roof off the Greenes’ home in the Caymans, about 450 miles southwest of Miami, and destroyed most of their furniture and the children’s toys.
Possessions can be replaced, though, and while Greene has found a home at Montverde, a college prep school in Lake County, she misses her family. That is what made Greene’s recent trip home so rewarding.
She used her free time to visit family.
“I was always a mommy’s girl,” Greene said, tearing up. “She would always do stuff for me, and I came here [to Montverde, which has a boarding program for international students] two years ago and had to do stuff on my own.”
Her mother, Susan, spoiled her with breakfast in bed and her favorite meal: steak.
“We talk every night on Skype,” Susan said through email. “It is difficult, and if I thought being here in Cayman was what’s best for Chelsea and her future academically and soccerwise, she would be here.
“Montverde has been good for her in both aspects.”
Montverde finished 11-7-1.
“It was really hard to be away from my family,” Greene said. “My brothers and I tried not to talk about it, but I was always wondering, ‘How’s the house looking? How’s my mom? How’s the island?’
“When I play soccer, though, I’m fine.”
Playing the sport was an opportunity she would not have received in the Caymans. Soccer wasn’t offered there for young girls — until Greene’s mother created a camp. That grew into the Cayman Islands Girls Football Organization, a Saturday program for players ages 4-12 that taught the sport’s basics.
“This was for the girls of Cayman, and it’s working,” Susan said. “There’s a lot more interest now, and some girls have gone on to play for the national team like Chelsea.”
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