The stakes will be high for Bermuda and the US Virgin Islands when they play for a place in the Caribbean Under-15 Championships at the National Stadium on Sunday evening (7 p.m.).

The winner of the two-leg tie, with the return leg to be played in the US Virgin Islands on April 23, will travel to Haiti for the finals in mid-July.

And nobody is more aware that a historic trip to the poorest nation in the western hemisphere is within reach than Bermuda's team coach Kenny Thompson.

"The chance that we may go to Haiti for the finals is very exciting to me.

This give us something extra to play for,'' said Thompson.

"Obviously from a footballer's standpoint getting to the finals at that level where we can expect to play against Jamaica, Trinidad, Cuba and the host country is something to strive for.

"But there is another incentive from a social aspect because I'd like to see the boys be offered the opportunity to see an entirely different way of life in a country like Haiti.

"I went there with the Bermuda senior national squad as a player during the 1992 World Cup campaign and the standard of living is not as we know it and our young people have to realise what is going on in different parts of the world and learn to appreciate what we have in this country. It would indeed be a learning experience for them.'' Continued on page 16