Under-18 Rugby Team off toplay in The Bahamas
The Cayman Islands' National Under 18 teamleft for The Bahamas on Friday to play in the Caribbean Championships.
Members of the ream were in high spirits and brimming with confidencewhen they departed.
Mr. Richard Adams. Director of Rugby saidthere has been a great response to the rugby programme and thenumber of players in the squad is now in excess of forty.
He said they currently have representationfrom Cayman High School, St Ignatius High School, CCC High Schooland John Gray High School on the U18 program.
In addition, they also have programmes runningin the following Schools:
· Cayman High School 150 participants
· CCC High School 200 participants
· St Ignatius High School 22 participants
· St Ignatius Prep School 50 participants
· Red Bay Primary School 60 participants
He said the John Gray High School will commencein December with 285 participants and the George Hicks in Aprilwith 150 participants.
"This gives us over 900 participantsin the schools. So far we have had over 180 players join the SaturdayUnion programs and as such have achieved the season goal of introducing1000 children to rugby so far this year, which is a great achievementfor a country with a population of 40,000," Mr. Adams said.
He aid they will be taking National U8,U10, U12, U14, U16 and U18 to the North America West Indies RugbyAssociation Festival of Youth Tournament in Florida in Februarywhere the U18 team will play a full International test againstthe Canadian National team.
The proposed Rugby Academy is set to commencein January and there have been offers of six corporate sponsorshipsso far for the players.