Jamaica’s drone soccer team may have returned home with a gold medal from the International Palm Springs Drone Fest in California, but Coach and Team President Dervon Mckellop says the programme is still surviving largely on personal sacrifice rather than structured national support.

Despite defeating teams from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Kazakhstan, the team continues to grapple with funding challenges, limited training facilities and heavy out-of-pocket expenses to compete internationally.

Drone soccer, which is a fast-growing international sport that combines drone flying, robotics and competitive game play is played inside an enclosed arena where teams attempt to fly specially designed drones through circular goals while defending against opposing players. The sport has been growing rapidly in countries such as South Korea, China and the United States.

The victory marked another major milestone for the programme, which has grown from a little-known initiative into what Mckellop says is now the Caribbean’s only national drone soccer team in less than a year.

The International Palm Springs Drone Fest, held from May 1 to May 2, 2026 at Palm Springs High School in California, is a major international drone technology and drone soccer competition featuring teams and students from countries across the Pan Americas Union for Drone Soccer, including Jamaica, the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The Jamaicans produced a dominant unbeaten run throughout the tournament, defeating Kazakhstan twice — including in the gold medal match — while also dispatching Mexico, the United States and Canada.

Jamaica opened the tournament with back-to-back victories over Kazakhstan, winning the first round 16-11 before securing an even more comfortable 11-3 result in the second. The team then dismantled Mexico on Saturday with commanding 21-0 and 23-2 wins before defeating the United States 17-8 in a single-round encounter. Jamaica later brushed aside Canada 18-1 before meeting Kazakhstan again in the decisive gold medal showdown, where the Jamaicans sealed another victory to secure the championship title.

The team’s success was built around what coach Mckellop described as the “eye formation”.

“We developed the eye formation, which was developed by the Jamaican drone soccer team [and] it’s not just my effort because I just invented the formation but without the team, the formation could not be possible, and the eye formation is something that is owned by the Jamaican drone soccer team,” he said, during a recent interview with the Jamaica Observer.

Team captain Carl Heron said the squad entered the competition with carefully planned tactics tailored to the strengths of each opposing team, particularly traditional powerhouses Kazakhstan and the United States.

“Going into the games, we already planned out how we would execute during each match, and how we would approach each team individually based on their skill sets, and based on how well each player on that opposing team, how good they are essentially. So our tactic was to mainly focus on our defensive line for the teams that we deemed as threats. So Kazakhstan and Team USA, and I mean, it went well. We had our team members, Keith Carter, Addison Clarke, and Joshua Forbes in the defence, and myself with Timothy Lee playing as the guide and striker,” he explained.

Heron said the strategy allowed the team to quickly reinforce its defence whenever pressure mounted, while still maintaining an attacking threat through its strikers.

“So if there were any issues, I would fall back to the defence and solidify the line to prevent any teams scoring too many goals on us. While Timothy, being our striker, would go on ahead and score the goals, so I think the tactic went well,” he added.

But even as the team celebrated the achievement, coach Mckellop said the programme continues to operate without the kind of institutional support normally associated with national sporting teams.

“Given the team’s commitment and my commitment to even continue to push this forward, even without any form of governmental support or any major sponsorship than Drift Enterprise Limited and Drift Enterprise UAV Services, which are owned by myself, it really tells anybody who is looking at the sport, just one year and we went from rising star to a gold medal win in less than six months, that… it has great potential, not just for Jamaica, but for the Caribbean,” he said.

Mckellop said Jamaica’s emergence in the sport has already begun attracting regional attention, with several Caribbean countries now seeking guidance on establishing their own programmes.

“Jamaica Drone Soccer is now that go-to organisation that people from Trinidad, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, people as far as Ghana, people are actually reaching out to us, asking us to even appear on TV shows to talk about our drone soccer programme because people have seen us,” he said.

Yet behind the international acclaim, the programme continues to face logistical and financial struggles.

Mckellop revealed that the recent trip to California cost roughly US$15,000 for travel and accommodation alone, excluding equipment and transportation expenses.

He added that each Class 40 competition drone costs roughly US$900, while the total setup per player, including remote controllers and other equipment, can reach between US$1,800 and US$2,000.

Training has also become a challenge for the growing squad, which currently operates without a permanent facility.

“Sometimes we don’t have a formal training facility. So, what we do is that we go to UWI (University of the West Indies) and train in the outer area there. Sometimes they are lenient enough to allow us to continue, but other times they will tell us that we have to pack up and go… So, finding a formal place to train is a struggle, but guess what? We make it work,” he added.

The coach also pointed to visa difficulties affecting players selected for the national programme ahead of upcoming international competitions, including the Intercontinental Cup in South Korea scheduled for July.

“We have players who we want to get on the team, but have been struggling even to secure a visa appointment. I mean, we went to California last weekend with only literally just five players, because I can’t play as the coach.”

Despite the challenges, the team says it remains determined to continue building the sport locally, with ambitions to establish inter-school competitions and eventually host international events in Jamaica.

“In South Korea, they have what is called a Challenge Cup where drone soccer players play in a pro league for prize money,” Mckellop said.

“I believe in myself and I also believe in this initiative, and I’ve seen where this team is changing lives. This sport is changing lives and all I want to do is to continue to push this sport forward to ensure that we make this sport as big as schoolboy football or the [Jamaica] Premier League…I’m looking at the next year, 18 months or two years to look at introducing small school, inter-school drone soccer and aerobotics competitions across schools across Jamaica and grow it from that space,” he added.

For now, however, the team says continued growth will depend heavily on whether greater support materialises from corporate Jamaica, sporting authorities, and educational institutions.

The gold medal trophy won by Jamaica’s national drone soccer team at the International Palm Springs Drone Fest in California.