Cayman’s three government high schools faced off in the inaugural KY-2 Cup, an interschool football tournament, held 15 Oct. in Cayman Brac.
Playing in an eight-a-side, round-robin format, the three schools – host Layman E. Scott Sr. High School, Clifton Hunter High School and John Gray High School – battled fiercely to the end.
Emerging victorious in the tournament was Clifton Hunter, who edged out the Brac school 2-1 to claim the championship, leaving John Gray in third place.
After a goalless first half in the finals, Clifton Hunter scored early in the second half after Keshawn Brown rose unchallenged from a corner to head the ball past the outstretched arms of Layman Scott goalkeeper Andre Nixon Jr.
Robert Tatum quickly brought the hosts back on level terms in an identical fashion, heading the ball past Clifton Hunter goalkeeper Caleb Eden.
The tense deadlock was finally broken by Clifton Hunter captain Kymani Parsons, who slotted home a decisive free kick low to the right of Nixon, effectively putting the cup firmly in the grasp of that squad.
Parsons’ goal secured not only the cup for his school but also earned him the award for most goals.
Layman Scott’s Jeremiah McLean was named MVP of the tournament, while Clifton Hunter’s Caleb Eden took home the best goalkeeper award.
The atmosphere, electricity, passion and technical play on display, particularly in the final, was deemed by Layman Scott physical education teacher Malcolm Ramlogan to be “on par with many national finals”.
Bringing the idea to life
The event, the brainchild of Ramlogan, came about through collaboration between the Layman Scott PE teacher and his counterparts Aaron Pollard from John Gray, and Ricardo Hayles and Oral Wiltshire from Clifton Hunter.
“When I began working over at (Layman Scott) in 2023, I was blown away by the amount of untapped talent that existed – an abundance of ability but very limited opportunities to expose and showcase it,” Ramlogan said.
“It amazed me that so many different sporting activities take place in Grand Cayman and our kids cannot take part due to flight, transportation and accommodation costs as well as missing school time. Whenever we do go over to take part in activities, we go as a small contingent without much home support,” he added.
Additionally, he highlighted that very few sports activities take place in the Brac, prompting this idea for the cup.
“From there, the idea took shape – host a tournament over on the Brac that children can come over to participate [in], see what we have to offer … and that all the kids in our school can witness and provide that ‘home advantage’ feel.”
Ramlogan, who said he was “ecstatic and motivated” by the tournament’s success, believes this is just “the start of something bigger”, with plans for similar events in various sporting disciplines in the future.
He says he would like to keep the tournament on the Brac but recognises the logistical challenges for the schools on Grand Cayman. With this in mind, he is hopeful that sponsors will come on board to offset the various costs, allowing the KY-2 Cup to remain as is.
Reflecting on ways to enhance the tournament, he said, “I also feel that marketing and promotion of the event is something that we can improve on. Hopefully we can get more parents and general fans of the teams to travel with the team so the contingents from Grand Cayman will be even bigger.”
