The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

HE MAY have been playing soccer for a decade but Phieron Wilson felt his Queen’s College Comets victory over the St Andrew’s Hurricanes was one of his defining moments.

Wilson, 17, was named the most valuable player after the Comets edged the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) champions Hurricanes to clinch the first national high school soccer championship title at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex last week.

“It’s a great accomplishment, but I couldn’t have done it without my team and I couldn’t have done it without God,” Wilson told Tribune Sports. “I was able to get through the injury that I had during the season and I was able to come back better than I was before.”

The 12th grader suffered a fractured ankle that forced him to miss about a month of action for the Comets during the BAISS season. Wilson, however, said he wouldn’t have missed the nationals for anything, not even injury.

“It was special to be playing in the final of the first national with your school and players who you have been playing against since we were young and to play against our arch rivals,” Wilson stressed.

“Playing against St Andrew’s just set the atmosphere for a perfect championship match-up.”

It was a payback for the Comets, who lost out to the Hurricanes in the BAISS final. Goals from Jamie Thompson and Tadiwa Mushonga sealed victory.

“My team played great because at the beginning of the season, we were having problems finding a right back and a left back, who were committed to playing their positions,” Wilson reflected.

“When we found the guys who agreed to step up and play these positions, all of us came together and said if they all play their top game today, we will win the final. Those were the positions that were taken advantage of, but they came out and played their hearts out.”

Hoisting the championship title was sweet revenge for the Comets.

“It was a kind of payback for us to St Andrew’s,” Wilson pointed out. “It’s a very nice way to end your high school season and career.”

Wilson is now preparing to head to the United Kingdom to study Sports Exercise and Kinesiology at the University of Kent in Canterbury and to continue his soccer career.

To those he will be leaving behind, Wilson advised them to always remember to “put your heart into everything that you do at every time that you do it. If it’s a team sport, just make sure that everybody is on the same page because your team is only as strong as your weakest link. When your weakest link plays to your strongest player’s ability, you are a strong unit.”

Over the years, Wilson has been a part of the Dynamos Football Club, headed by Carl Lynch and Dion Peterson. Wilson has also played for the national team, coached by Dion Godet.

Lynch said it was a pleasure coaching Wilson. “He’s been with us for at least eight years and I was very pleased with his performance in the tournament,” Lynch said. “I think it was a good coaching decision (by Phil Haven) to have him play defence on St Andrew’s top scorer, Ethan Willie. They sacrificed him for the greater goal of the team.”

Lynch said Wilson has been a “very good all around athlete, who has progressed over the years. He’s a former under-17 national team manager as well. He’s an utility man, who can play from the back to the front line.”

Wilson is the third of four sons, whose mother, Lisa Ingraham, says she is extremely proud of his accomplishment. Wilson’s older brother Jordan Wilson, a former student of Westminster College and Anatol Rodgers, is presently playing for Central Baptist College in Arkansas.

“I’m very proud of him. He’s an example to young men,” her mother said. “He’s respected by his teammates and even the parents of his teammates. There are times when parents will come and say ‘oh, you’re the mother of Phieron. He’s a very respected young man’.

“He’s motivated, he’s disciplined and he knows what he wants out of life. He sees himself as the Buddy Hield of soccer in the country. I fully support him in that regard. From a very young age, he picked up the soccer ball as he was watching a FIFA game and he said he’s going to be doing that.”

One day while playing outside their home, Ingraham said she remembered how her son kicked the ball and broke their PVC pipe and because of the expense she incurred, she noted that she was confident that he was going to go on and become an outstanding player.

“From there, I put him in the Dynamos private club and he has been excelling,” she said. “He even slept with the dirty soccer ball. If he won a game, he didn’t even want to put the soccer ball down. But we’re had our mother-son moment and I support him and believe in him that he will put the Bahamas on the map in British soccer. I’m very proud of him.”

Ingraham commended the coaches and the players who her son has been involved with at the Dynamos and the Comets and she considers herself a soccer ‘mom’ who enjoys helping not just her son but all those who have been affiliated with him.

To assist Phieron Wilson in accomplishing his goals, contact him at 361-2199, 423-1287, 552-5277 or ingrahamcommunications@gmail.com.