Excelsior High School Football Drought Ends After Two Decades; Belizean Karate Athletes Shine in Costa Rica
Goodnight, and welcome to another edition of Sports Monday; I am your host Paul Lopez. Here’s wishing you a great start to the week. It was an exciting weekend in sports for Belize, locally and internationally.
Let us kick off tonight’s sports coverage right here at home where the Central Secondary Schools Sports Association’s football season came to an end with two teams being named champions. On Thursday of last week, finalists Wesley Colleges Girls and Saint Catherine Academy Girls went head to head to see who would dominate the 2023 season. Well, folks, number sixteen for Wesley College, Zariah Gentle, wasted no time in scoring the match’s first goal. In the fifth minute of playtime, she placed her team on top with one goal. And that would be the story of the match. Saint Catherine made every effort to respond, but ultimately that first goal at the start of the game sealed Wesley’s victory and made them the 2023 CSSSA Champions in football.
In the second match of the finals, it was the Excelsior High School men’s team against the Maud Williams High School men’s team. Excelsior High School displayed dominance on the field, ending the game with five goals to the opponent’s one goal. The man of the match was Raheem Herbert. He finished with a hat trick, scoring the team’s first goal in the ninth minute and following that in the second half with a second goal in the forty-second minute and a third goal in the fifty-fifth minute. This win is historic for Excelsior High School as it brings an over two-decade losing streak to an end.
Abraham Ponce
Abraham Ponce, Coach, Excelsior High School Football
“Well it is historic. It is the first time since twenty three years of drought that we haven’t won a championship. And, it also entails that the Southside community is able to produce talented footballers and we do have at this present moment in this school footballers that are export prospects. As you can see in social media, we have become the most talked about because these boys did well. And, the support from Mrs. Watters and the staff members while the competition was ongoing was also vital for us to have the victory and I believe the boys must feel like celebrities, because they are celebrities.”
Tannaejh Castillo
Tannaejh Castillo, Athlete, Wesley College Soccer Team
“We had a mindset that wanted to win and that we should work as a team, work together.”
Leila Bernard
Leila Bernard, Athlete, Wesley College Soccer Team
“It was a bit of a challenge, because sometimes we had homework and we had to try and do our homework after practice.”
Tannaejh Castillo
“My thought is that ladies could make it and we the try change that fih mek deh sih that nuh only boys could play football.”
Leila Bernard
“It was a bit hard because SCA came back harder than before. We already won against them four to one. So they came back harder to try and beat us.”
The Nationals is scheduled for this weekend in San Pedro.
DIGI and the Cycling Federation of Belize held its twenty-seventh Annual DIGI Valentines Tour over the weekend. Twelve riders competed in the junior category of the race. A total of fifty-three riders raced in the open/elite category. Six women competed in the women’s category. In stage one of the classic, the open/elite category rode for fifty-eight miles, while the women and juniors rode for thirty-eight miles. For the tour’s first leg, the top three elites were first-place winner Wasani Castro, second-place went to Shervin Budna, and Henry Li took the third place position. In the women’s category, Kaya Cattouse took first place, followed by Patricia Chavarria and Paulita Chavarria in third place. In the junior category, it was Jaylen Briceño for first place, Tyler Tejeda in second, and Jamary Murry in third.
Wasani Castro
Wasani Castro, Westrac Rider
“What we did was since the race was short, we rode the race early. So, we sent two of our guys up front in the pack to give the other riders that was not in the break to chase us. That burned out most of their legs. When I felt like it was my time to go after seventy-five percent of the race, with my team mates out in front, I guess it was unexpected and they couldn’t catch back up to me.”
Kaya Cattouse
Kaya Cattouse, LA Sweat Rider
“Comfortable, the breeze coming down from this highway the pickup. I guess it is the time of the day too and nice head wind the blow. If kinda stiff fih the eena, but dah the nature of this thing you know.”
Jaylen Briceño
Jaylen Briceño, G-Flow Rider
“Right now I lee bit tired, but I done get back my energy. But I will save it for the time trial this afternoon. I know Tyler is very good at the time trial. At least I made up some time. So, if we beats we at the time trial, it is not a lot. So, I can make back up for that time.”
The second leg of the tour was all about time trials. But, the third stage, a hundred-mile race from Leslie Imports on the George Price Highway, to the Phillip Goldson Highway’s Boom Road junction and back, for two laps, ultimately decided the victors in the tour. In the end, Wasani Castro was named the overall winner in the elite category. Kaya Cattouse secured first place overall in the women’s category.
And now, for some karate action, five athletes traveled from Belize to San Jose, Costa Rica, to compete in the Central American Karate Championships. They are Julie Cruz, Keenan Thimbriel, Jayden Tillett, Malachi Garcia, and Shyheim Tablada. On Saturday, three of those athletes secured bronze medals. They are U-14′s Jayden Tillett, Keenan Thimbriel, and Julie Cruz. In the U-21 category, Shyheim Tablada was crowned the Male Kumite Sub Champion. Also coming out of this weekend’s event in Costa Rica, three Belizeans, Rito Fernandez, Christine Norlay-Nichols, and Kimberly Bowman, received their license to officiate Karate Championships in Central America. We congratulate everyone who has contributed their time and effort to the discipline’s success in Belize.
And that is all we have for you tonight.
