Academy Sports Club recently completed their best performance ever at the 33rd annual Schwan’s USA Cup, and returned recently with two championship trophies, one runners up trophy, a semifinalist spot and two quarterfinalist positions.

96 players traveled to the week-long competition, including the club’s U10, U12, U12 girls, U13, U15 and U17 teams.

The U10 boys and U12 girls teams were crowned champions of their Gold Cup and Silver Cup respectively, while the U15 boys were runners up in their Gold Cup, the U13 and U12 boys were Gold Cup quarterfinalists, and the U17 boys finished as semifinalists in their Gold Cup.

“We are extremely pleased with the results we achieved this week,” said Paul Byles, Academy’s U13/U15 boys Head Coach. “While it is obviously exciting to bring home trophies and medals, the more important factor for us is that our players received the international experience needed for them to develop as footballers at this great tournament.”

It was the first time the team had brought a girls team to the tournament, and Academy Head Coach Virgil Seymour said he was proud of the team for winning a champion title at their first international tournament.

There were 178 persons from the Cayman Islands on the trip including parents, team managers and the coaches. The club’s coaches were: Greg Brooks (U10), Logan Seymour (U12) Adam Clark (Girls U12), Paul Byles (U13 and U15), Jack Brazil (U17) and Virgil Seymour Academy’s Head Coach.

“All of the teams went above and beyond and performed extremely well at the tournament,” Mr Seymour said. “We have to give a special congratulations to our girls team on winning the trophy at their first international tournament. We look forward to further expanding our girls programme and bringing them to many more tournaments in the future.”

“The next step will be taking all the exposure and lessons from this week and applying them to our upcoming season,” he added.

Byles said that the achievement of the club’s older teams is also significant in the club’s history. “We have had success at the younger age groups at various international tournaments over the past eight years, but have always strived to get our older players aged 14 and over to a higher standard. This year marks a huge achievement as our U15s made it the Gold Finals and our U17 teams made it to the Gold semi finals. It shows that we are competing now at all ages internationally which is not only good for Academy Sports Club but also generally for the Cayman Islands.