TWO of Seevic College’s brightest sporting prospects have been praised after winning football scholarships in America.

Theo Cannon and Joshua Devlin are members of the college’s Football Academy but will be heading stateside after being spotted in recent trials with Future Elite Sport.

Following an intensive year of trial matches, Cannon, 17, and Devlin, 18, will be continuing their studies abroad, with Cannon studying at Feather River College in California in September and Devlin attending Mount Aloysius in Pennsylvania to study Business Administration.

And coaches Steve Tilson and Danny Greaves were full of praise for the duo, who have competed in the AoC National League, English Colleges Cup and the Essex Open Cup.

“Theo started in the College’s first team when he first came to Seevic in 2014,” said former Southend United manager Tilson. “Since then he has continued to be a valuable member throughout the two years.

“I am sure with the right coaching and determination from himself he could play at a very high level.”

Cannon, who is a right winger, will be studying Kinesiology during his time in California alongside a high intensity sports training programme and he was thankful to the college for helping him realise his dreams.

“Seevic brought Future Elite Sport in to give us a talk and I would never have thought about it before that,” he said. “The opportunity is incredible and I feel like Seevic has really helped me to develop.”

“I was quite nervous but I knew, if I made it, the reward would be massive,” added Devlin. “Seevic helped me every step of the way and by training every day I now play to a much higher standard.”

Coach Danny Greaves previously coached Devlin in the third team at Seevic and the former Blues player said he has the talent to be a success.

“During the past two years Josh has progressed into the first team and has been an absolute joy to work with,” he said

“He has a fantastic attitude and the right determination to do well. He has really epitomised the scheme which we have on offer here.”