In August, 14-year old Kareem Foster and 11-year old Aidan Hew spent one week training at the prestigious Swindon Town FC Youth Academy in Swindon, England.

The training opportunities were arranged through Grasspiece Promotions and Fitzroy Simpson, the person responsible for securing places at Swindon Town’s Youth Academy for Sebastian Martinez, Kray Foster and Nathan Borde and for Cameron Gray at Reading FC’s Youth Academy over the past three years.

Grasspiece Promotions was formed in 2013 primarily to promote and improve youth football and relationships between the Cayman Islands’ football fraternity and its partners through tournaments, coaching clinics, player clinics and other events.

A thriving relationship has been formed between Grasspiece Promotions and the Swindon Town Youth Academy primarily from the hosting of the inaugural C3 Cayman International Youth Football Tournament in February 2014, which included Swindon Town ’s Youth Academy along with the Cayman Islands National Under 15 Team and the Under 15 team from Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Houston Dynamo.

Kareem and Aidan caught the attention of the Swindon Town youth coaches at the football camps hosted by the English professional club’s Youth Academy during the C3 Cayman International Youth Football Tournament. Their performances during the camps warranted an invitation by the visiting coaching staff to visit the Swindon Town Youth Academy and experience what it was like to train at a professional youth academy.

Commenting on his experience training at the English club’s academy, Aidan said, “I was nervous but very excited as I wanted to see where I was with my football compared to other 10-year olds at the Academy. I learned quickly that their touch and technique were at a higher level than what I was

used to. I thought I adjusted quite well after the first or second day and it worked out quite well.”

Kareem trained with a number of the youth academy teams and thoroughly enjoyed participating in the training sessions. He said, “I was very excited about visiting Swindon. I was looking forward to having new coaches, playing in a new environment and having new team mates. I thought I adjusted to their style of play very quickly and fit-in well. I was glad to play in a practice game against the Southampton FC youth academy, that was a great experience.”

Because of Kareem and Aidan’s performances, coaches at Swindon Town’s Youth Academy indicated that they will continue to assist with the two boys’ development and have invited Aidan to join Swindon’s Under 12 team on their tour of Holland in Easter 2015 and have invited Kareem to stay with, train and play with the Swindon Town Youth Academy team that will travel to Grand Cayman in February 2015 for the 2nd Cayman International Youth Football Tournament.

If all goes well, both boys may receive an invitation to be full time Academy players at the Swindon Town FC Youth Academy. Grasspiece Promotions wish both Aidan and Kareem all the best and will continue to support them with their football endeavours.

As an added bonus on their recent trip to the United Kingdom, the youngsters were fortunate to watch the Swindon Town FC first team play two matches at the County Ground.

Grasspiece Promotions thanks C3 and all the corporate sponsors of the 2014 C3 International Youth Football Tournament and the Ministry of Health, Sports, Youth and Culture and Ministry of District Administration, Tourism and Transport, who ultimately contributed to Kareem and Aidan’s opportunity to visit Swindon by way of the youth camps during the tournament. In addition, a special thank you to those individuals and companies who contributed directly to the youngsters’

trip to the United Kingdom in August.

Grasspiece Promotions is currently organising the 2015 Cayman International Youth Football Tournament and the Swindon Town Youth Academy Camps, which will take place in February, where opportunities for more Caymanian youngsters will be available.

The Youth Camps will be held during the week of the school mid-term break from February 16 to

20, while the tournament games will fall between February 19 and 22.

For further information or support of these future events, please e-mail [email protected]