Golden Jaguar international and emerging midfield talent Curtez Kellman has officially secured a scholarship with Daytona State College within the Region #8 conference of the National Junior College Athletics Association (NJCAA).
This was disclosed during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday. According to Kellman, he received the scholarship offer from Daytona State College, after he unfortunately lost his scholarship at Eastern Florida State College due to the financial effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He further revealed that Daytona State College was a rival of his former school and the process of finalizing the scholarship offer was recently completed following constant communication between the academic institution and himself.
Kellman, who once donned the colours of Georgetown Football Club (GFC), elaborated, “I have officially secured a scholarship with Daytona for this semester and I will attempt to transfer to a division 1 NCAA school in August. I am excited about this opportunity as it gives me another opportunity to play in front of professional coaches and scouts so that once I perform well I can get a professional contract.”
Daytona State College (DSC) is a public college in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System. DSC competes in the NJCAA Mid-Florida Conference (Region VIII) in 10 sports inclusive of men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s cross country, women’s golf, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, softball, and baseball. As of 2011, DSC held eight NJCAA Team National Championship titles.
According to Kellman, “Because of the Covid-19 from the first school, I had to take a transfer to finish my associate degree and continue playing college football. The school reached out to me, the coach knew me because we played against them previously so because of my good performances and the coach knows what I am capable of, and he made contact with me. I am very pleased, getting another chance in a country where opportunity is there so that I can continue to pursue my goals which is to become a professional football player and also gaining my academic achievements.”
He revealed that Monday is being targeted as the day of departure and that he is excited to resume his sojourn in the college football realm as it provides him with the ideal platform to improve as a player. He disclosed, “I just got the confirmation today but I am trying to leave on Monday, if anything probably Wednesday latest. I am excited to return to play college ball because the season is almost ready to start. I have seen a good amount of improvement since playing college ball, the coach gives me a lot of information based on the position I play and what I should do to become a better player both on and off the field.”
Kellman, who is currently a member of the local Golden Jaguars training roster for the impending World Cup Qualifiers, stated that the return to the playing area at such a competitive level, will provide the game time that is needed to contribute to the national program on the international scene.
“Since the season is coming up I will be active and getting game time under my belt and once called upon by the national team I will be ready to represent so I am not worried to be away from the training programme. I will have the game time since the season is going to start soon. This will help me to be match ready and prepared. I talked to the manager, and he said he will talk to the head coach about it”, he added.
