Boys and girls have been hand-picked by the Bahamas Football Association to take part in their 'National Academy' this summer. Formerly the Centre of Excellence, the three-week youth development programme designed by the BFA, focuses on improving individual player's technical skills and abilities, as well as their knowledge and understanding of football (soccer).

The summer programme, which is now in its fourth year, opened at the beginning of this week (July 3) and will end July 21st.

The players in the camps were selected from the various youth programmes in New Providence and from the Family Islands.

"We've got kids down here from Freeport, Abaco, Exuma, and even Andros," BFA's Technical Director Gary White pointed out.

"When we started this programme about four years ago we only had about 60 kids.

"Now we have about 122, which I think shows how successful the programme is becoming," said White.

For the second year the camp has included a girls' programme with two age categories.

This year about 41 girls will make up the two divisions of 11 and Under and 13 and Under, along with four girls in the goalee division.

The boys will have the normal divisions of 9, 11, 13, and 17 and Under.

The camp also has a goalkeepers division which is one of the key positions that needs specific training.

The boys from these groups will be looked at for selection onto the 17 and Under National Team which is preparing with the boys 20 and Under squad for competition in July and August.

Headed by Matthew Greene, instructors at the camp are part of the BFA National Coaching Staff. In addition, current youth internationals are assisting with coaching in the programme.

Greene, who is also head coach of the senior and junior women's national teams, told the Nassau Guardian on opening day of the camp that "a programme like this is needed if we're going to be serious about fielding competitive national teams."

He added, "when we started this we always said that it's gonna take some time before we start to see overall improvement in the young players.

"Well now, every year kids are receiving college scholarships partly because they've come up through the ranks of our national programme."

Earlier this year (February) the BFA's national programme got another boost as sports apparel company Mazamba signed a four-year sponsorship contract.

And since the summer camp is part of the national youth development programme, all of the kids' camp uniforms, balls, and other equipment were provided by Mazamba.