Following hot on the heels of the Telford Electric Magic Mile, Dash at Dark races and senior and middle schools athletics meets this week and next, comes another popular event for the Island’s youth at the National Sports Centre — the Kappa Classic football tournament next weekend.

Having started out with 12 boys teams in a one-day tournament in 1999, when the Heritage Football Tournament was taken over by the Men of Kappa Alpha Psi Bermuda Alumni Chapter, the Kappa Classic now caters to more than 1,000 boys and girls with a record 86 teams registered for this year.

The tournament allows youngsters between the ages of 7 and 14 to showcase their talents and last year the first overseas team competed when John Smith Soccer Academy, from Milford, Massachusetts, brought three teams to Bermuda. They will be back this year with three teams in the under-ten, under-12 and under-14 boys’ categories.

“When we took it over there were 12 teams and we played the tournament on Saturday mornings and it has exploded now to 85 teams this year,” Craig Tyrrell, a Kappa Classic official, said. “Last year it was 78 teams and the year before that it was 72.

“We’re always looking to make the tournament bigger and better, this is the largest youth tournament on the Island and we think we do a pretty good job of organising it, which is evidenced by the turnout we get every year. Throughout the year this is all the kids talk about.”

The event originally catered to youngsters between seven and 12 when the name was changed to the Kappa Alpha Psi Pee Wee Extravaganza. In 2010 the tournament was renamed the Kappa Classic and now gets exposure on YouTube thanks to video coverage by Bermuda Sports Network.

The Kappa Classic Alumni includes some players in the senior national team such as Nahki Wells, Jonté Smith, Rai Simons, Casey Castle, Justin Donawa, Detre Bell, Dale Eve, Jalen Harvey, Anthony Hunter and Tre Ming.

As the tournament has continued to grow, the days of competition has grown too, from a few hours on a Saturday to Friday evenings for the preliminary round matches, all day Saturday for the preliminaries and quarter-finals, and the semi-finals and finals on Sunday morning.

“Of course if more teams join then we might have to have more days just for the preliminary rounds to get to the last 16,” Tyrrell said. “We have eleven girls teams participating in three different age groups, under 10, under 12 and under 14 and we’re always looking to expand that as well.”

The Men of Kappa Alpha Psi Bermuda Alumni Chapter continue to promote achievement through sport by providing an outlet for young people to showcase not only their sports skills but also their leadership and teamwork. This year’s major sponsors include XL, The Ace Group of Companies, The Department of Youth, Sport and Recreation, Tokio Millennium, Butterfield and Vallis, The Bank of Bermuda Foundation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Atlantic Medical International, Milo (BGA Group of Companies), Catlin, TBI and the Bermuda Tourism Authority.