Bermuda’s young footballers were exposed to a different football culture when they competed at the Tarraco Cup in Tarragona, Spain.

Raising the Bar, in collaboration with KTECH Performance & Management Systems, took 18 up-and-coming stars to experience football within a new environment. The young players were in two under-10 teams, alongside under-11 guest players competing with CS Academy Barcelona.

For Kim Robinson, Raising The Bar operations manager, the initiative reflects a continued commitment to creating meaningful opportunities for young people through sport, education, travel experiences and cultural exchange.

“Opportunities like this give our young people the chance to see themselves in new environments, compete with confidence, and understand that their potential is not limited by where they come from,” Robinson said.

“Through sport, travel and international exposure, we are helping them build experiences that can shape how they see the world and their future.”

The under-10 A team included guest goalkeeper Martín Conde Casanova, from Spain, along with Marcelo Robinson, Maddox Seymour Durham, Sol Darrell, Theodore Smith, Carter Anderson, Gabriel Vickers and Munir Lee.

In the under-10 B side were guest goalkeeper Spencer Turner, from the United States, Chai Walker, Jonah Davis, Brooklyn Emery, Lucas Nelmes, Cassidy Furbert, Daylon Brangman, and Oscar Lima.

The under-11 guest players competing with CS Academy Barcelona included Trevor Mills, Royce Tyrrell, Roman Bather and Za’Vae Lewis.

Kenny Thompson, the founder of KTECH, led the coaching staff, with Andre Famous and Jaidyn Robinson the other coaches.

Riley Robinson was originally scheduled to travel with the delegation, but had to withdraw due to international commitments with the Bermuda senior men’s team.

“The Spain experience also continued the organisation’s growing relationship with Nastic Sports Academy, strengthening international pathways for Bermudian youth through sport, education, and international exposure,” Kim Robinson said.

“Beyond results on the field, players had opportunities to build life skills through travel, teamwork, responsibility, independence and cultural immersion — all core pillars of the organisation’s philosophy.

“Special thanks are extended to the families, sponsors, partners and supporters, whose continued investment helped make this international experience possible.”

Thompson viewed the exposure as a reality check for the young footballers.

“The experience was positive for the group,” he said.

“The KTECH programme has always chosen to participate in tournaments whereby it is a real challenge to even win one game.

“Our local competitive level is too low. Our players struggle to internalise the concepts and game principles required for higher levels later in football phases.

“It is for this reason that we don’t have our players to compete in environments where they can do what they do at home. The harder it is to win, the better it is for us.

“This experience was the first for this group of players. It was an eye-opener for the reality of how challenging football is playing against their peers who demonstrated higher levels of game understanding at speed with high intensities repeated throughout each match entirety.”

The former Bermuda assistant coach believes the players can now relate to what is required to progress in their careers.

“With this experience, the players are able to connect the demands made on them in our training environment with a real feeling,” he said.

“They now know the importance of maximum ball control, focused perception and decision making, high levels of athleticism, mental strength and resilience.

“The positive is that they demonstrated understanding and executed our tournament game model in spurts. The next step is to be more consistent with it.

“The players were shown for me one of the moves of the tournament and that level could have easily been mistaken for elite pro club academies.

“There is potential that requires the right learning model especially since we don’t have the population numbers whereby enough global elites level can make up for our development structural errors.

“I was able to observe some of our players who relished the high competitive challenges.

“Thanks to Raising The Bar for providing KTECH with the opportunity to collaborate from the team development process.”