Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
PRIESTLY
AS AN under-20 player, Akeem Priestly is poised to be one of the notable producers in Jamaica's national football set-up.
He lit up Germany when Jamaica's Under-20s toured Europe and he has made a distinct impression on every football field he has entered from as early as his under-13 days at Wolmer's Boys' School.
He crowned himself as one of the stars of the 2003 Manning Cup for Ardenne, even though his team only played a minor role in the competition.
Priestly has also played no small part in the successes of the Harbour View Football Club at the age group level.
Since then, Priestly has been trying to pry his way into the Harbour View National Premier League set-up.
At that level he hasn't really been able to display the same sort of dominance as he has at the age group level.
However, the diamond in the rough, as he has been called by national technical director, Wendell Downswell, has continued to improve and his move to further his education via a scholarship to Jacksonville University in the United States has started promisingly.
Priestly, affectionately known as 'Boogie' to his fellow footballers and family members, scored 11 goals with six assists this season and helped his team in no uncertain terms into the play-off quarter-finals of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
GOLDEN GOAL
On October 31st last year, Priestly was named Offensive Player of the Week after he completed a streak of six goals in five games by scoring a golden goal against Belmont University to give his team a play-off berth.
While his achievements have been notable since getting to Jacksonville, where he got two As and two Bs from his four subjects for the semester, Priestly hasn't had the easiest time.
"When I just started I wasn't getting any balls," said Priestly.
"The team is made up of an almost all white team and they never warmed up to me at first," he said.
As a matter of fact, Priestly didn't get unto the scoresheet for his first 10 games.
"It was during the second half of the season that things turned around," he explained.
"I spoke to the coach and he in turn spoke to the players, after that I hit my stride," Priestly told The Gleaner.
While Priestly had begun to settle at Jacksonville, he now has the task of doing it all over again.
This season the Harbour View and Jamaica young player, will not be heading back to Jacksonville.
At the end of this week when he returns to the United States he will have to decide whether or not he will be going to the University of Connecticut or St. John's University, which have both offered him scholarships.
GRATEFUL
While the experience hasn't been all comfortable for Priestly, who has still found a way to shine, he has indicated that he is grateful for it.
"The experience of playing away in an environment where I don't know anybody has made me mentally stronger. I have also become physically stronger and I work much harder on the field than I used to," he said.
With a new work ethic, greater physical strength and improved mental toughness, Priestly must now turn his attention to a second semester full of the same challenges that faced him in the first.
"I don't know which of the schools I'll decide to go with, but whichever one, I know I'll continue to work hard and give it all I have," he said.
"I want at the end of this stint to start a career overseas, I don't want to play in the premier league all my life," Priestly ended.
If Priestly's coach at Jacksonville is right about the youngster's talent then his dreams may just come to fruition.
"I'm proud of the effort Akeem has been giving this last couple of weeks. He has showed us the type of player he can be by coming through for us in a few crucial situations," Jackson was quoted as saying after Priestly won the Offensive Player of the Week award. "This award is well-deserved," he added.
