Calon Minors, Berkeley Institute’s deputy head boy, signed a letter of intent yesterday to attend the University of South Carolina Upstate on a football scholarship in the fall.

The 17-year-old S4 student who plays in midfield for BAA Wanderers in the First Division, signed the document in the presence of school faculty and his parents, Clark and Beverley Minors, as he made the commitment to become the latest recruit for the NCAA Division I school.

Minors has been an honour student at Berkeley since he began attending in 2010, but he has been excelling on the football field, too. He began attracting interest from American colleges after his impressive performance in the Bermuda School Sports Federation All Star game last month when he scored two wonderful goals from midfield and was voted the game’s most valuable player.

Things began to happen very quickly for Minors after that, as he started receiving offers from colleges, but Quincy Aberdeen, a former top footballer and a USC Upstate graduate, used his contact with coach Greg Hooks to get Minors at the school.

“I am a very passionate soccer player but at the same time I know that school is just as important,” Minors said yesterday.

“Author Helen Keller said, ‘The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.’ I have lived my high school life off of that quote.

“From the first day I stepped on campus, I know I wanted to finish Berkeley and go to university on a soccer scholarship. Every day since then, I have worked hard to see that plan to fruition. So today I am here to proudly announce that in the fall of 2014 I plan to attend the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and will be a part of their NCAA Men’s Division I soccer programme, who compete in the Atlantic Sun Division.”

The teen thanked several people, including his parents “for their support in everything they do for me”, Aberdeen and Berkeley PE teacher Irving Romaine who were at the forefront of the scholarship offer, S4 heads Quincy Paynter and Keisha Douglas, teacher Richard North, Saltus teacher Darrin Lewis for assisting with NCAA eligibility and BAA coach Kenny Thompson “for helping on the football side of things”.

Aberdeen, a PE teacher at Northlands Primary, who graduated from the university in 2000, used his contact there to secure the scholarship.

“He’s a very sound player, strong on the ball and with a great left foot shot and once I saw him play I made contact with the coach of the University of South Carolina,” Aberdeen said. “As a former collegiate athlete, it is my civic duty to help our locals in any which way I can. One of my good friends I went to school with who played with me was looking for some Bermuda players. He contacted Mr Romaine at Berkeley to see if there were any eligible seniors looking to go and he mentioned Mr Minors and it went from there.”

Father Clark is proud of his son. “We realise that it was important for us to instil in him very early that schoolwork was first and soccer second, so we’re proud to see him reach this part of his life,” he said. “Of course, he has only just begun.

“Whenever he plays we’re there and, yes, I’m quite vocal. Of course, coming up under coach Kenny, parents know they have no right to coach; that there is only one coach.”

Romaine called his student “a perfect gentleman, perfect sportsman who has no problem encouraging his peers, has good grades and dresses correctly”.

“You cannot ask for more than that when you are attending Berkeley Institute. This is what our youngsters should be striving for right now, and to see him signing this paper, I hope that is a goal for the rest of the students in this school, to show that it can be done at a public school.”

Thompson said: “I’m very proud of Calon. He’s worked extremely hard from the time I met him and, as he said, he’s been passionate about what he does. He has a high level of self-discipline and works extremely hard. People like Calon are serious about what they do and we have to be serious about what we provide for them.”

Minors, an Arsenal fan, lists Bermudian Nahki Wells and Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshire as his two favourite players and one day would like to play professionally, too.

Already he is an excellent role model, said Dr Phyllis Curtis-Tweed, the Berkeley principal. “He’s an extraordinary example to our young people,” she said. “With that kind of commitment on the academic field and playing field, you see what can happen. He really is among the best and the brightest, and with that kind of attitude and determination, he will go as far as he wants to go.”