He may be small in stature but Sam McKittrick has a hugely competitive appetite, with the 14-year-old set to represent Bermuda in two different sports at back-to-back tournaments.

McKittrick, who attends Warwick Academy, leaves for Decatur, Alabama, today with the Bermuda Under-14 football team for the three-day Open Cup Tournament.

He will then return to the Island for less than 24 hours before heading to Antigua for the East Caribbean Volleyball Association Invitational with the Bermuda Under-17 team.

While McKittrick expects the constant travelling and busy schedule of matches to be gruelling, he insists that it is a challenge that he is looking forward to and expects both teams to be in the hunt for honours.

“It should be a fun few weeks,” McKittrick said yesterday. “Hopefully both teams can have success in their tournaments.”

McKittrick, an attacking midfielder who models himself on Santi Cazorla, the Arsenal and Spain playmaker, admits that juggling his studies with his sporting commitments can sometimes be tricky. He said that he has to plan his week with almost military precision to ensure that neither suffers.

“At least once a week, I have to go straight from football training to volleyball training,” McKittrick said. “I actually have to take my volleyball equipment to football training. Monday is the only evening I don’t have anything, so that’s when I have to get my homework done.”

A former North Village player who joined the Valencia Academy this season, McKittrick believes that he is physically better suited to football and hopes to use the sport as a vehicle to earn a scholarship to an American college.

“I think football is more my sport, although I really enjoy playing volleyball,” he said. “People think volleyball is only for tall people, but I have a position where shorter people can play.

“In football, there are a lot of players who are my size and do very well. Cazorla is my role model.”

Sarah McKittrick, Sam’s mother, said that he carries an air of confidence and has a competitive edge that belies his small stature.

“He’s very committed at whatever he does and very passionate about his sport,” she said.

“He’s quite small but is never intimidated on the pitch. He definitely has a sense of confidence. He’s like a stealth bomber on the football pitch and tends to pop up when people least expect him to.”

Maceo Dill, McKittrick’s football coach, said that his team included several who excelled at different sports. “It’s quite common in Bermuda for our kids to compete in many sports from the ages of 12 to 15 because we don’t have a large pool to pick from,” said Dill, whose side play Darlington School, from Georgia, in a warm-up for the Open Cup Tournament.

“But there comes a time at around 15 when they have to make a choice to specialise in which sport they want to grow in.

“We will certainly be hoping that Sam sticks to football. He’s a fabulous player and works hard. We would hate to lose him to another sport.”

Mark Hamilton, the Bermuda Under-17 volleyball coach, said that McKittrick, who is youngest player in his squad, was one of four members of the team who represented the Island at more than one sport.

“It’s going to be a busy few weeks for Sam, who is the team’s libero [a player who specialises in defensive skills],” Hamilton, a teacher at Warwick Academy, said.

“We also have Sean Tucker, a national cricket player and track and field athlete, Shannon Botelho, who has represented Bermuda at the Carifta Swimming Championships, and Jacques DeVerteuil, who plays for Bermuda at rugby and squash.

“It’s hard because we don’t really get a lot of the public school kids to come out because they play cricket and football, and their coaches don’t play volleyball.

“Our players tend to come from the private schools like Somersfield Academy and Mount Saint Agnes, so we don’t have a cross-educational pool of public and private school pupils.”

While the next few weeks are sure to be a sizeable challenge for the youngster, there is no doubt that McKittrick will be more than a match for what lies ahead on both the football pitch and volleyball court.

Bermuda squads for the Open Cup

in Decatur, Alabama

Under-16: Jomari Gooden, Ahria Simons, Judah Chapman, Travis Boyles, Jason Symonds, Justin Bell, Kole Hall, Llineiko Millett, Jaizel Smith-Deshields, Azendae Walker, Zenwai Bowen, Josh Hardtman, Jerome Bailey, William Spencer, Jnai Steede, Ajai Daniels, Quinaceo Hunt.

Under-14: Jarye Bean, Keishon Bean, Mateo Isaac, Tai Williams, Zuhri Burgess, Cory Booth, Diaje Hart, Casey Hardtman, Edry Moore, Santze Burgess, Darin Woolridge, Sam McKittrick, Keeron Wilson, Tahki Tucker, Andrew Kempe, Jaquari Paynter, Andrew Mcdowall, Mical Hardtman.

Coaches: Andrew Bascome, Philip Burgess, Maceo Dill, Karl Roberts, Sergio Goater.

Head of delegation: Richard Todd.