Six local students, selected from about 20 applicants, were the recipients of $5,000 scholarships handed out by the Bermuda Football Association yesterday.

The Legends Scholarship Awards carry the names of four former footballers and a referee who have given long service to the game. Among the recipients were local players Micah Pond, Andrew McDowall, Mical Hardtman and Deshae Darrell, who each received two-year scholarships, while Zuhri Burgess, a player with Robin Hood last season, received the one-year Special Scholarship award. Savannah Fisher, the other recipient, contributes to local football as a youth coach.

“The Legends Scholarships was started in 2007 and we took a hiatus until 2012, but thankfully we were able to reinstate the Legends Scholarships in 2017,” said Mark Wade, president of the Bermuda Football Association. “Over the years we have managed to highlight some of our legends, which is always important for our young people to know who came before them and whose shoulders they stand on. We have acknowledged administrators like Dudley Eve, who we have a trophy name after, Diane Hunt, who is one of our selectors, Charlie Marshall, who distinguished himself as a referee and still serves the game today, having started a million-dollar fund which matures every five years as he puts money back into the game.

“We also acknowledge coaches like Gary Darrell, who still stands as the coach who took our team the furthest they have been in the World Cup qualifiers. We also have persons who have been players, coaches and administrators, such as Randy Horton and Leroy ‘Nibs’ Lewis.”

The Legends selection committee is chaired by Horton’s brother, Robert, also a former educator. Also on the committee are Diane Hunt, Cal Simons and Anthony Mouchette.

“A distinguished footballer of yesteryear, Pele, said ‘if you don’t give education to the people it is easy to manipulate them’,” Horton told the audience at the Clyde Best Centre of Excellence last evening.

“I therefore wish to salute the BFA for recognising the importance of education by this scholarship, for recognising that outstanding prowess on the sporting field is very important, but also having educated footballers, men and women, is critically important.

“Parents, we salute you for producing some fine young people. They thrilled us and I know they are an enormous credit to you, their parents, other members of the family, to the football community, and to Bermuda.”

Those scholarships are named in honour of former players John Nusum, Lorenzo Symonds, Dennis Wainwright, Dr Llewellyn Simmons and referee Carlyle Crockwell. Nusum and Symonds were former Bermuda defenders, with Symonds a captain of the national team for ten years from the age of 23, while Wainwright and Simmons are former goalkeepers.

Simmons is the director of Academics at the Department of Education, while Wainwright, a former two-sport Bermuda international, still gives back to the community as a mentor of students at Francis Patton School, something he has been doing for the past 18 years.

Nusum also played professional indoor and outdoor football in the United States, after being drafted by the San Diego Sockers in the North American Soccer League upon completing college.

Scholarship recipients

(each for $5,000)

Special Scholarship Award (1 year): Zuhri Burgess

John Nusum Scholarship (2 years): Savannah Fisher

Lorenzo Symonds Scholarship (2 years): Mical Pond

Dennis Wainwright Scholarship (2 years): Andrew McDowall

Carlyle Crockwell Sr Scholarship (2 years): Mical Hardtman

Dr Llewellyn Simmons Scholarship (2 years): Deshae Darrell