{"id":289465,"date":"2018-11-29T06:04:25","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T20:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=289465"},"modified":"2018-11-29T06:04:25","modified_gmt":"2018-11-28T20:04:25","slug":"boost-to-cnmis-grassroots-soccer-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/boost-to-cnmis-grassroots-soccer-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Boost to CNMI\u2019s grassroots soccer program"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-289465 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/boost-to-cnmis-grassroots-soccer-program\/afcpix2-7\/'>afcpix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-289467'>\n\t\t\t\tParticipants and resource speakers in the 2nd Asian Football Confederation Grassroots Football Conference 2018 gather for a group photo. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/afcpix1-6\/'>afcpix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-289464'>\n\t\t\t\tNorthern Mariana Islands Football Association\u2019s  Ruselle Zapanta, left, and Mikky Vargas pose for a photo during a break in the 2nd Asian Football Confederation Grassroots Football Conference 2018 held early this month in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Northern Mariana Islands Football Association\u2019s Ruselle Zapanta and Mikky Vargas attended a conference in Malaysia early this month and came back with lots of ideas that would further boosts the CNMI\u2019s grassroots program.<\/p>\n<p>They took part in the 2nd Asian Football Confederation Grassroots Football Conference 2018 held from Nov. 13 to 15 in Kuala Lumpur. Zapanta and Vargas met with their counterparts from the 41 other AFC-member nations and learned from experts and resource speakers that included  AFC technical director Andy Roxburgh, AFC Grassroots manager Masahiro Sugiyama, and grassroots football specialist Timo Huttunen of Finland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a great experience being able to attend such a conference. This being my first time since I was filling in for our technical director (Michiteru Mita) and youth committee representative (NMIFA vice president Vickie Izuka), I was looking forward to see if there are new ideas to improve our grassroots program. It was an insightful event, trying to turn other member association\u2019s ideas into something that NMIFA could hopefully implement in the near future,\u201d Zapanta said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing sent to this event meant that we needed to learn and gather as much information as we can to bring back and grow our grassroots program. AFC\u2019s definition of grassroots entails all amateur and recreational players in all ages. What that meant to me is that the NMIFA is only going to get busier,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Zapanta and Vargas also attended the grassroots festival at the AFC House where they watched a 4v4 soccer format and the \u201ctribute to unsung heroes\u201d awards presentation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was also nice to see and meet other representatives of AFC member-nations who have similar duties in their home country. At the dinner table, we met John Whittle, who actually had been to Saipan and  conducted a coaching course, 10 years ago,\u201d the NMIFA executive director said.<\/p>\n<p>As for Vargas, she said that being new to AFC and coming from a small island, it was very helpful to learn from representatives of big countries that have thrived against all odds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe conference was catered to the technical side of grassroots development. We discussed several things, but I believe the highlight of the conference stemmed from the constant interaction between the different MAs (member associations). A big chunk of the conference had us discussed the different challenges we faced in terms of grassroots development and what worked or what didn\u2019t work when trying to solve the problem,\u201d Vargas said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing a small MA, there was nothing much to do for us there but learn, which is the greatest thing ever. Being able to hear the different approaches developed MAs would take to tackle a problem that is very much relevant to us will only further our growth and that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking to do\u2014grow the program,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Northern Mariana Islands Football Association\u2019s Ruselle Zapanta and Mikky Vargas attended a conference in Malaysia&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":289467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2768,23383,15361,198],"class_list":["post-289465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-afc","tag-andy-roxburgh","tag-michiteru-mita","tag-nmifa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289465","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}