Sports
I Want to Be Like Mike…
By Lionel Haven, BFA
Feb 4, 2010 - 8:33:33 PM

Justin Sealey - Sealey in action in the BFA Senior League

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 was National Signing Day for the Class of 2010 senior high school student athletes seeking to attend college in the fall.

Bahamian soccer standout and National team member Justin Sealey inked his commitment to follow in the footsteps of legendary tar heels Michael Jordan, Lawrence Taylor, Rick Fox and Mia Hamm when he signed his official letter of intent to matriculate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The signing ceremony which took place at Sealey’s current high school, St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas, was attended by his father, BFA President Anton Sealey and younger sister Lindsey, also a student at St. Stephen’s.

At UNC, Sealey will be joining Coach Elmer Bolowich and a program that is consistently ranked in the top 5 of the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Soccer. UNC entered last season ranked Number 1, despite having lost in the NCAA Finals to the University of Maryland Terrapins, and just recently lost out in the semi-finals of this year’s tournament to eventual winners and number 1 ranked Akron. This year’s team saw two of its graduating seniors taken in the MLS draft, with Captain Zack Lloyd being chosen with the 5^th pick overall. Sealey leads a strong recruiting class which will be counted on heavily to replace the departing seniors.

Sealey who starred at Queens College for Coach Garry Markham and in the BFA’s Youth League with the Insurance Management Bears Football Club before leaving for school in the US, credits his success to supportive parents, coaches and friends. He add to a growing list of young soccer players, products of the Bahamas Football Association’s youth program, who have been recruited to top flight soccer programs in the United States. General Secretary Lionel Haven touting the success of the BFA’s Foot Scholars program in congratulating Sealey stated, “Justin is a fine example of a young Bahamian applying himself and being rewarded for his considerable effort. Having watched him from a very young man early on to someone who has seriously committed to improving his game and himself in the classroom, I know that Justin will succeed and lay a foundation behind which many other young Bahamian Foot Scholars can take advantage.”

 

Justin Sealey at the Signing Ceremony at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas