Members of the Anguilla Football Association, Members of Government, supporters, well-wishers and residents turned out at the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport on Monday 28th August, 2023, to welcome back home Anguilla’s Under-14 National Girls Football Team.
The girls performed in an outstanding fashion in the recent tournament put on by the Caribbean Football Union Under-14 Challenge Series held in Antigua.
The Honourable Premier and Minister of Finance and Health, Dr. Ellis Webster said: “We are happy to be here to welcome them home and to show our appreciation to them. The girls represented Anguilla well. The future is good for them. We are quite fortunate to have young people that can represent us in this manner. They carried themselves well through their teamwork and they showed a certain degree of resilience in standing out while they bore the flag for Anguilla. We do congratulate them.”
“I would like to congratulate the Anguilla team together with the Anguilla Football Association and the great work that its President, Girdon Connor, continues to do with these young footballers,” the Honorable Minister of Infrastructure, Communications, Utilities, Housing & Tourism Haydn Hughes commented. “Without the investment from FIFA, we would not have had the facilities for their training. The talent that we [see] in these young people has come about not just by their input, but also by those said facilities. We are immensely proud of these athletes. We congratulate the team for capturing the golden boot, and we are proud of their accomplishments.”
The golden boot was won through the skillful playing of Kaylee Durand who scored an amazing 11 goals for her team.
The Honourable Minister of Social Development, Education & Library and Sports Dee-Ann Kentish-Rogers had nothing but high praises for the Anguilla team. “The team has made Anguilla extremely proud,” she said. “We viewed their playing via the Caribbean Football Union page. And we felt real proud to see Kaylee hugging her golden boot very close to her.”
“The games demonstrated the type of technical ability that our young female athletes have in the sport,” she said. “They all have a lot of potential, and their teamwork is very important. I am proud to see such teamwork being developed at such a high level at such a young age. They have done an exceptional job and we are here to support and encourage them.”
Coach Collin Johnson, who accompanied the team to the games, shared an analysis of the Anguilla team winnings with Lloyd’s Live.
“Anguilla came in at 3rd position in Tier 2, with 30 countries contesting overall,” he said. “The Anguilla team played against Dominica, Grenada, the US Virgin Islands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Martinique.”
“In the first game against Dominica, we won 6 nil,” he said. “Kaylee Durand scored all six goals in that game; in the second game against the US Virgin Islands, we beat them 7 nil, with Kaylee scoring three goals in that game; then we played against Grenada, beating them 3 to 1. In the game against St. Vincent, we beat them 2 nil. Then we got defeated by Martinique in the semifinals, 2 nil.”
He said that apart from playing well, the girls represented Anguilla well as good ambassadors.
Golden boot trophy capturer, Kaylee Durand, said that her aim was to show that Anguilla should not be taken for granted. She thanked her teammates and her coaches for the hard work they put in which contributed to her scoring the most goals.
