Some of the best of Bermuda’s high school talent will be shown to a Digicel SportsMax audience when the Caribbean broadcaster televises the senior boys and girls finals from the National Sports Centre.

The Bermuda School Sports Federation, in conjunction with the Bermuda Football Association, revealed exclusively to The Royal Gazette yesterday that an agreement has been reached with Digicel SportsMax to show the boys match in its entirety, and highlights from the girls final, which will be played on Thursday at noon and 1pm.

The matches will be filmed by Fresh TV, who will have four to six cameras and commentary, with the matches shown on television a few days later, although the date is still to be confirmed by Digicel SportsMax.

“We are hopeful that the schools that will be in the finals will bring their students to support the school,” Manny Faria, of BSSF, said.

“Also we invite the general public to attend the matches.

“We are looking forward to a huge crowd to demonstrate to the SportsMax audience that schools football in Bermuda is of a high quality, and that we love the game.”

As the announcement was being made inside, Clyde Best, Bermuda’s most famous footballing export, stood on the balcony of the Clyde Best Centre of Excellence named after him and watched matches on the field below.

He, too, thinks the television coverage will be good for local football.

“We definitely have talent here,” Best said as he watched Whitney beat Dellwood on penalties in a boys middle school semi-final. “It’s a decent crowd here, nice to see the schoolchildren supporting their schools.

“I’m glad I did come up here, I saw some talent out there and it’s just a matter of steering them in the right direction.

“We’ve got to make sure that the kids are supported [in the final] because in Jamaica everybody comes out, the parents, neighbours and the schoolchildren. On that day hopefully the students from the schools will come out and support their teams.

“It would be nice for the young kids to turn on the television and see themselves. I’m dying to see somebody from here playing in the Premier League, it is not just a good thing for the player but also for the country.”

Maurice Lowe, the BFA Technical Development Director, and BFA vice-president Mark Wade said in a joint statement: “The BFA is really excited about this venture with Digicel SportsMax as it gives our players in Bermuda the opportunity to showcase school and youth football to the wider Caribbean region.

“We have seen school football finals on SportsMax for some time now, and so we are pleased to know that Bermuda will be added to the schedule.

“This first project will also be a huge opportunity to the BFA to negotiate for more football matches in Bermuda to be shown on Digicel SportsMax.

“As the BFA has stated previously, we aim to be the best in the Caribbean and to be highly competitive with the other Concacaf countries.”

Max Tshunungwa, Digicel SportsMax head of production stated: “As the leading sports broadcaster in the Caribbean, we are very proud to be associated with the BFA and the BSSF in airing the senior schools finals and we see this as the beginning of a very long and fruitful relationship with sports in Bermuda.”