{"id":185837,"date":"2014-11-25T04:12:50","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T18:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=185837"},"modified":"2014-11-25T04:12:50","modified_gmt":"2014-11-24T18:12:50","slug":"womens-tackle-football-coaches-eyed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/womens-tackle-football-coaches-eyed\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s tackle football coaches eyed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Players<\/a>
Players in the Bud Light Guam Women\u2019s Tackle Football League block each other in a game last season. BLGWTFL president Linda Salas is working closely with Commonwealth Football League Association officials to start a women\u2019s league on Saipan. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bud Light Guam Women\u2019s Tackle Football League president Linda Salas vowed to help Saipan take baby steps so the sport can gain some traction in the CNMI.<\/p>\n

Salas, who was part of the Guam delegation that watched Team Guahan play against the CNMI Sharks in Saturday\u2019s friendly match, said her first goal is to find coaches who can help train and put up at least three teams on Saipan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be anybody who loves football, who might have an experience in coaching. John Blanco can be one of the coaches. I want the coaches to form at least 2 or 3 teams. Someday we can also come here and play against them or vice versa,\u201d said Salas,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to fundraise and come here, just like what the men\u2019s team has been doing.<\/p>\n

I want to see women\u2019s football grow here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Salas, who arrived Friday morning along with Team Guahan, added that she would still meet with Commonwealth Football League Association board chair John Blanco to discuss other matters since everything is in its planning stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s interest in women\u2019s football. When I was touring Saipan I bumped into two ladies and they are interested to join. In Guam, we have players from different walks of life. They are students, doctors, clerks, secretaries and stay-at-home moms.<\/p>\n

Salas said playing tackle football is one of their ways to take some aggression out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone can play the sport, all you need to have is commitment. The ladies also want to play football. Maybe, it is their way of taking out their stress since in football they can hit legitimately as long as it is within the rules. And you also have protective gear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGear won\u2019t be a problem since it is the same like the men\u2019s wear. You could order it online and I can tell them where to order the gear. I have the resources if they want to buy in bulk,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Salas said Saipan could start with 6-aside teams just to familiarize the players with the rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure first that there are teams here on Saipan. We want to follow the same formula on how American women\u2019s football started in Guam. In our first year, we played 6-aside and I think that is the formation that Saipan should start playing with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter starting with 6-aside, we had 8-aside the following year, and now we currently play 11-aside. We want to take baby steps here on Saipan and not form the standard 11-man formation. We could also provide them with the rulebook,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd hopefully in a year, we could come down here and play a friendly 6-aside game with the Saipan ladies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salas said 6-aside matches can be complicated at first but with the help of a coach who knows football, the female players can get used to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only challenge for the women is the one who is not in shape or not in good condition. They might have a hard time in the beginning. You know how some of the coaches are, they are like drill sergeants,\u201d Salas said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

She added that in 6-aside games, one is assigned as the quarterback, three will be at the offensive line, while two are running backs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only difference is the five remaining players are all eligible as wide receivers. Anyone can catch the ball and carry it all the way down to the end zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salas said that women\u2019s football in Guam now has a strong fan base since they started in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has grown big in Guam. Right now we have seven teams. Before, the number of team varies as we started with 8 in our first year and five played the next season. We also gained more attention as a lot of people watch it.\u201d Salas said.<\/p>\n

She said they are not expecting the sport to make an impact right away on Saipan. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just want the CNMI to start off somewhere. I want to show that women on Saipan can also play the sport. I\u2019m excited and I really wanted to see ladies play football,\u201d she ended.<\/p>\n

For more information or any interested players or coaches, email John Blanco at johnsblanco@yahoo.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bud Light Guam Women\u2019s Tackle Football League president Linda Salas vowed to help Saipan take…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":185840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26,679,51,199],"class_list":["post-185837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-cnmi","tag-football-2","tag-guam","tag-sport-2-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}