Bermuda’s Under 15 Girls National Football Team arrived back at the LF Wade International Airport to a Hero’s Welcome after competing in the CONCACAF Under-15 Girls’ Championships at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney in Orlando, Florida.
Despite a negative headline in the printing press and as the coach and captain prepare to have an interview staged and not met at the airport by another media, the National Coach Naquita Robinson kept things positive.
Robinson told the family, friends and supporters of the players, “It's quite an improvement for this group, a lot of hard work has been done. A lot of people don't understand what we ask of these girls, and you know it was times where I know they didn't want to be at training, they had to come to training. We have players here that did dance, they would come training first in the morning, leave, go dance, twinkle toes, and come back to training in the afternoon. It's a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice.”
“With the tournament in August, we ask the girls to pretty much give up their entire summer so that they can be committed to this course. It was very exciting once we arrived at Disney World or Orlando. Our girls remained focused, some have never been, some have, but it didn't matter. They knew that they came to play football, and that's all that was on their mind,” continued Robinson.
Robinsons went on to say, “Parents, thank you so much because this was probably the easiest tour we've ever had, these girls are well-mannered, they carried themselves with dignity, with pride, whether on the field, in the dining hall, in the hotel, you know we kind of lost the privilege which was unfair to us because of other teams taking advantage of the situation, but these young ladies are absolutely phenomenal. We have to continue to support them, right now I plead to any individual company, anyone just to invest in this group, because they can go very far.”
Robinson concluded, “We receive compliments such as Bermuda is a team in this tournament to look for in the future. You know, individuals can say you know, you were in the lowest group and you advanced, but really to play against USA. I think the proudest moment for us as coaches is when you see your goalkeeper pick the ball up out of the net 12 times herself, at no time did she drop her head, at no time did she want to give up, you know, these girls, with every girl, we still went at it, we still went at it.”
Bermuda captain Leilanni Nesbeth at the end of the group stages was one of the tournaments leading goalscorers.
Nesbeth said, “I felt that this trip was a very good experience for all of us, even our young players to them to get opportunity to play against teams like the United States. We put up a good fight, all of us, we never let our minds control our game, we played until the end in every game. We came off with very good goals after every 70 minutes. It was unfortunate that we lost in our last game, but again it was USA and I believe that with the people that we have on our team now, that in about two or three years or so, in the future, we will be at that same level as the United States.”
Delia Ebbin said, “This tournament was a great experience for us, and it was a very good learning experience as well. Even though we took a loss, we still kept our heads high through the whole 70 minutes, and we will be looking forward in the future to do our best and play at the levels of the higher teams that we have played.”
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