On Thursday, November 13th, 2014 the Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association (TCIFA) welcomed the Lyford Cay International School (LCIS) Elite and Development Sports Football teams for three days of friendly matches and local hospitality. The three day invitation was extended after TCIFA Technical Director Craig Harrington spoke to LCIS Head Football Coach, Dean Jacobs, whom he had known since days working together for LA Galaxy FC in Los Angeles, California.

After months of planning TCIFA welcomed the Boys U12 and Girls U15 teams from LCIS kicking off the first two games of the match up. Playing slightly above their age group, the LCIS boys’ team lost 14-2 to the TCIFA Boys U13 squad while the girls, evenly matched in the U15 division, lost 6-2 to the visitors. On Friday night and Saturday morning, the LCIS boys U12’s played against the TCIFA girls U11’s in matches designed to maximize play time for the entire team by splitting the games into one half before giving all of the TCIFA girls an opportunity to hit the pitch. The evenly matched U15 girls fiercely competed throughout the three days of play with the TCIFA girls avenging their Thursday night loss with a 2-1 win on Friday night. Though suffering a 5-2 defeat on Saturday morning, the girls played a friendly round of beach soccer along with both boys teams to round out the weekend.

Speaking of the entire trip from Nassau, Bahamas to Providenciales, Athletics Director Craig Massey of LCIS said, “It was overall a great matchup to bring two teams from our school to take on the TCI kids in what has been a great competition in terms of levels. We are delighted to have done this as it shows our teams where they stand in terms of school programs and soon the TCIFA teams will come to the Bahamas because it has been such a successful event that can only grow the kids and grow TCI kids and all our kids in general. The kids need more exposure and TCIFA has made them feel so welcome that we will come back sooner than you might think.”


“We want to invite TCIFA to the Bahamas for 3-4 matches and to reciprocate the wonderful hospitality we’ve received here in the Turks and Caicos. The level of play in the football has been high caliber on both sides, on the first day they were slighted mismatched but the second day everything has been evened out and it was a real true contest of good football skills, talent, and heart.”

President of the Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association Sonia Bien-Aime went on to say, "The weekend's tournament was a proven success for both the visiting teams from Lyford Cay International School and our TCIFA U15 Girls and U11/U13 Boys development squads. The beauty of the competition was that it provided most of the players with their first experience of an international competition, which is very important in their development stages. It is our plan to continue the relationship with the LCIS and other groups from overseas to create more opportunities of competitive games for all of our youth development teams."