Women love Oleai infield

After spending all of the regular season scoring goals and chasing balls at the American Memorial Park, the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association Women’s League moved to the Oleai Sports Complex for its championship tournament over the weekend.

Whether they won or lost, all of the players agreed that the field conditions were the best that they’ve seen since they started playing the world’s most popular sport on Saipan and that they hope to call the Oleai oval home.

Despite ending the year on a losing note, Saipan Grand Hotel Mamma Mia’s captain Sarah Helbert was happy to share her feelings about the field after her contest.

“The field was tons better. This field was so much better that I can’t even tell you how much better that it is. We’re not running on rocks, the ball doesn’t do funky stuff, it’s got grass—it’s a very nice field,” she said.

Her teammate Laila Qudsi shared Helbert’s sentiments and explained some of the hazards that the AMP facility holds for the players.

“This field is great. There’s not so many holes and not so many rocks. We don’t have to worry about falling and scraping our knees and elbows. It just feels better all around,” she said.

Brenda Schultz was the driving force behind the success of the women’s league both on and off the field, giving her a unique perspective as both a player and organizer.

“It’s heaven. This field is so great because you can actually play the ball without looking. It feels safer. I really, really appreciate that they let us use it and I really, really hope they let us use it again in the future,” she said.

Betty Johnson ran the field alongside Schultz for the Fiesta Resort and Spa Femme Fatales and she had said that there was no comparison between the two surfaces.

“This field is so much nicer than the one at AMP. It’s pretty level, you don’t have to worry about ruts, and hurting your knees and back. It’s wonderful,” she said.

The players weren’t the only ones who appreciated the use of the field as UMDA Hot Salsa head coach Jaime Saiki was hopeful that NMIFA might make use of the facility in the future.

“We discovered this great field and hopefully it will be assigned to us in the future. This field is great. It was built to play soccer. I know we have to be very careful about the track. It’s a multi-million dollar investment so we have to take care of it,” he said.

Mamma Mia’s head coach Wes Bogdan agreed with Saiki and said that Saipan’s brand of soccer took a step up when the women had the benefit of a top- notch field of play to compliment their abilities.

“We don’t want to hurt the track at all but this would be the field obviously. The quality of soccer goes up because the ball takes better bounces and the players’ feet don’t hurt. It’s a much, much better field than anything else that we’ve got on Saipan,” he said.

Bogdan said that the Oleai facility is better for a number of reasons including the safety of the players as the Garapan park has patches of rocks, coral, and concrete in the field of play.

“It’s not dangerous. I hate to say that the [AMP] field was the cause of the other injury that happened last week where a broken ankle occurred, but that field [has] bad injuries,” he said.

The center of the field has been used from time to time by a small number of groups as the site coordinators have been protective of the track surface. Walking across the lanes with cleats would cause damage to the state of the art facility and if the women’s tournament was any example, the NMIFA officials seem to have the remedy.

All players and officials removed their cleats prior to crossing the rubberized surface and had several ball boys and girls on hand to chase the balls that were sent out of bounds.

“We’re really watching that trying to make sure that there are certain conditions to use the field,” said Bogdan.

According to site scheduler Eli Rangamar the field is open for all to use, however, with so many groups interested it will require plenty of advanced planning.

“I was a soccer guy too. That was my sport and I’d like to get into it but we’re going to have to sit down with them and work out the schedule. It’s not a problem to let them use the field but even the football league wants to use the field and we have to ensure that there aren’t any conflicts,” he said.

Rangamar said that the facility will not be available for the teams to use for practice but will be the ideal place for marquee games and can be used in the evenings as well, thanks to the addition of the lighting array prior to the hosting of the Micronesian Games.

Making the switch from the AMP to the OSC comes as welcome news to NMIFA Men’s Open League coordinator Vince Stravino and he said that he is 95-percent sure that this Sunday’s games will be played inside the oval.

“It’s looking promising. I have to go down there to measure it but I think we’ll be playing there this weekend. [The Division of Sports and Recreation staff] has been extremely gracious and accommodating,” he said.

While the move looks like a sure thing, Stravino said that he appreciates everything that the AMP has done to host the league.