From backyard football and being trained by his older brother at 5 years old, Tyler Beckford continues to rise in the sport on the college level.
Beckford, a freshman at Hesston College, located about 36 miles north of Wichita, Kansas, began his university studies in the United States last August and plays for the Hesston football team.
He led his college team with 10 goals this past season and earned a spot on the All-Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference First Team.
This honour is given to the top-performing athletes in various sports in the conference and is awarded at the end of each season. It signifies that these athletes are considered the best in their position among all of the colleges in the conference.
During the season, Beckford accumulated 21 points and secured the KJCCC Player of the Week in October following a hat trick against Pratt Community College. He was also awarded Offensive Player of the Year by the athletic department of his college at its annual athletic banquet.
To add to this successful streak, Beckford was recently selected to play for Inter Wichita FC, a semi-pro team in the United Premier Soccer League.
He attributes hard work and dedication to a successful first year playing overseas.
He told the Compass, “For months leading up to my leaving date to go to college, I took on many one-on-one sessions with my lifelong club coach Roy Ebanks.”
“These sessions included intense beach [training] to get me mentally and physically ready to play at the college level,” he added.
Although Beckford, who primarily plays striker, has reached milestones while away, he acknowledged the challenges. He shared that the speed of playing was one of the biggest adjustments he had to make when transitioning to college-level football.
“The way the ball was moved for 90 minutes constantly was something I wasn’t used to,” he said.
He added, however, that his experience playing in the Cayman Islands Premier League from age 16 provided good preparation for his overseas football journey.
“Playing against men 10 years older than me helped me get stronger,” he said.
With the aspiration of playing professional football one day, Beckford said he believes his college success will be a stepping stone for him mentally. Regardless of whether he achieves the goal of going pro, he’s confident this experience will help him succeed later in life.
“Never leave out God and silence the noise” is the advice that Beckford had for young Cayman footballers who are aiming to achieve similar success at the college level.
“I’ve personally been told by high-level coaches, ‘You will never play at this level’ [and] ‘You’re not there yet’. [Just] silence this noise and prove them wrong,” Beckford said.
