Tobago Under-15 football sensation Kyle Jack and Port of Spain & Environs female track star Caliyah Wallace were named the Youth Champions of 2015 at the second annual Atlantic Youth Excellence in Sport (YES) Awards held recently (Wednesday Jan 13) at Queen’s Hall.
Toni Sirju-Ramnarine, Vice President of Corporate Operations, Atlantic explained that the YES Awards were created by Atlantic to recognize and foster outstanding performance of primary school athletes, teams, coaches and administrators within Atlantic’s sponsored national programmes in cricket, football, track and field, swimming and triathlons. She said the initiative aimed to help transform today’s boys and girls into tomorrow’s leaders in sports.
“Atlantic is pleased to nurture the dreams and to create opportunities for thousands of boys and girls across Trinidad and Tobago; dreams of perhaps one day wearing the red, white and black of our beautiful twin-island republic or the maroon for the West Indies,” Sirju-Ramnarine said.
The two Youth Champions were also congratulated by three of Trinidad and Tobago’s premier athletes and Atlantic Sports Ambassadors: Olympic and World Champion swimmer George Bovell; and cricketers Sunil Narine and Merissa Aguillera.
Caliyah Wallace, who was also the 2014 Female Youth Champion at last year’s inaugural YES Awards, was recognized for another year of outstanding track and field performance. She became the second fastest Under-20 female over 200 metres at the Junior Championships and also attained the Under-15 Victrix Ludorum title at Diamond Vale Government School’s Milo Games. In addition to winning all three of her contested events at the Port of Spain Rotary Games, Caliyah led the Port of Spain & Environs team to victory in the Under-15 Girls 800-metre medley at the Atlantic National Primary Schools Track and Field Championship. She was also unbeaten at the Hampton Games, the Manny Ramjohn Games and the Falcon Games.
Male Youth Champion Kyle Jack scored 20 goals for the Bon Accord Government Boys team in the 2015 Zonal Games, the most goals recorded to date for Tobago. Named the Most Valuable Player in the Tobago League, Kyle continued giving stellar on-field performance and won the Man of the Match title at the Quarter Final, Semi Final and National Final of the Atlantic National Primary Schools Football League. He was subsequently named the League’s Most Valuable Player.
The Team of the Year award was presented to Bon Accord Government Primary School, the first school to have both their boys’ and girls’ teams win in the Under-15 categories in the Atlantic National Primary Schools Football League. Additionally, the League’s two Most Valuable Players – Kyle Jack and Diamond Arthur – were both Bon Accord students.
Karen Araujo, President of the Trinidad & Tobago Triathlon Federation was recognized as Administrator of the Year for her work in organizing the Atlantic Youth and School Triathlon Championships. Terrence Caesar, Coach of Tunapuna Boys RC School won the Fair Play Award, while coach Robert Mahabir secured the Coach of the Year title for his work in training the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Team to capture the 2015 championship title.