Last weekend over 100 BISP students took part in the school’s first Beach Soccer Tournament, hosted by XANA Beach Club at Angsana Laguna Phuket.
Students aged 8 to 16 competed across three mixed-gender divisions in six-aside matches consisting of 12-minute halves.
The Cruzeiro Stars division (Years 3, 4 and 5) was won by the Blue team in a penalty shoot-out against the Orange team. The White Team prevailed against the Orange team 3:0 in the Cruzeiro Diamonds division (Years 6, 7 and 8) and in the Cruzeiro Blues division (Years 9 and 10) Pink beat Yellow 4:0 to take out the title. The event concluded with a friendly match between the BISP Cruzeiro coaches and Laguna staff, which was won by BISP Cruzeiro 4:0.
BISP Cruzeiro Football Academy head coach, Jonathas Candido, said he was pleased with how the students adapted to playing on the sand.
“For many of our players, this was their first experience playing a tournament on sand and I thought they would find it much more challenging than they did. But they displayed great skill and technical work despite the extra challenge sand brings.”
BISP Athletics Director, Jeff LaMantia, said the tournament was just the beginning of a long-term plan to establish an annual international schools beach soccer tournament.
“We hope to build on the success of this inaugural tournament and make this a regular fixture on our sporting calendar at BISP,” he said. “In the future, we’d like to welcome overseas international schools as well.”
BISP and XANA welcomed 300 supporters, parents and spectators over the two-day tournament played in the morning and many BISP families made the most of the overnight accommodation deal offered by Angsana.
BISP would like to thank XANA Beach Club and Angsana Laguna Phuket for hosting and sponsoring this event and to all our BISP players and supporters.