Secondary Schools All-Star soccer match.

Bermuda Schools Sports Federation (BSSF) administrator Clint Smith said this week that at least five participants in the match were being eyed by overseas college and university coaches.

Two -- Corey Dowling and Damon Francis -- had already been offered full one-year scholarships to attend the Bermuda College as a result of being named the game's Most Valuable Players. Francis on Friday spearheaded the West to a 1-0 victory over the East for whom midfielder Dowling was outstanding.

And Smith, noting the exposure and stage provided by the All-Star match -- there were some 10 college or university coaches in Bermuda specifically to scout talent at the match -- said that at least one coach had intimated that all of the players appeared capable of getting some form of financial assistance from his programme.

However, he added, much depended on how the players performed in the classroom, with each awaiting Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) results, used by most American institutions to determine student admissibility. A minimum score of 700 on the test is usually good enough to garner acceptance.

"The coaches come here, see and talk to the players and then go back, review the game and see who fits into their programme and it then becomes a waiting game to see about the academic side,'' explained Smith.

Also to be factored into the equation is the dwindling number of athletic scholarships allowed to be offered in accordance with increasingly stringent NCAA guidelines.

"Nowadays there has to be equity between both male and female sports in terms of offering scholarships, and money often has to be taken from the male programme to supplement the female. Thus there isn't as much scholarship money available and it's harder to get full scholarships,'' explained Smith.

"One thing that has to be kept in mind is that when our boys finish high school they are usually a year younger than their American counterparts and they are not ready to enter university abroad for maybe a year after they graduate, which gives them time to mature a bit.'' Smith added that the SATs were merely an "indicator of how well a student was able to handle course work'', but told little of the actual person.

"All of the guys are capable of success if they expose themselves to the academic side.

"In the last five or six years we've had 30 guys receive scholarships and several go on to complete degree work.'' Not only males stand to benefit as witnessed this year by visiting coach Kelly Wood. The head female soccer coach at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine and a former All-American, Wood also interviewed several prospects over the weekend.

Corey Dowling Damon Francis