{"id":373134,"date":"2022-07-28T06:06:04","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T20:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=373134"},"modified":"2022-07-28T06:06:04","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T20:06:04","slug":"toves-wally-to-continue-soccer-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/toves-wally-to-continue-soccer-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Toves, Wally to continue soccer journey"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
In this combo photo, Merrick Toves is joined by NMIFA technical director Michiteru Mita, while Britany Wally (center, right photo) is with NMIFA executive director Russelle Zapanta and coach Angie Ito during a brief ceremony last Friday in Koblervillle announcing the two NMI National Team pool players\u2019 move to continue their soccer journey off-island.(ROSELYN B. MONROYO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NMI National Team pool players Merrick Toves and Britany Wally will continue their soccer journey off-island as they joined their respective school\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

Toves, who plays goalie for the national team, will be with the Richmond International Academic and Soccer Academy\u2014an association football academy based in Leeds, England. Wally, on the other hand, is heading to Texas to suit up for Navarro College.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am excited for this opportunity. I\u2019ve been waiting for this since I graduated from high school a couple of years ago. Finally, it\u2019s happening and I would like to thank everyone who helped me get the chance to play college soccer. Thank you to NMIFA, my coaches, and teammates,\u201d said Wally.<\/p>\n

Northern Mariana Islands Football Association president Jerry Tan led a brief ceremony for Wally and Toves last Friday at the NMIFA office in Koblerville and is pleased with how NMI players are given opportunities to pursue higher education through football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost count already on how many NMI players have made it to the collegiate ranks and that\u2019s very good news for us\u2014a boost to our program.\u00a0 We are all proud of you and we wish you good luck as you continue to play football. Please come back and share what you will learn to our young players,\u201d Tan said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Toves said he will use the opportunity to play off-island to continue improving his game and represent the NMI well. He commits to continue playing for the NMI national team and inspire young players to stay with the NMIFA program.<\/p>\n

Toves\u2019 school has two teams\u2014the FC RIASA\/Eccleshill United FC\u2014which competes in the Northern Counties East Football League. NECL is a semi-professional English football league with two divisions (Premier Division and Division One), which stand at the ninth and 10th levels of the football pyramid respectively. The league has over 40 club members.<\/p>\n

Navarro College, on the other hand, is part of the National Junior College Athletic Association, which sanctions community, state, and junior college athletics throughout the U.S. The Bulldogs are the eight-time Region XIV champions, have made it to the NJCAA National Tournament nine times, including a runner-up finish in 2013, and was once ranked No. 1 (2013) in the entire competition. This is the same school that recruited Wally\u2019s teammate on the NMI National Women\u2019s Team, Guinevere Borja, who is now with Oklahoma Panhandle State University in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.<\/p>\n

NMI Women\u2019s National Team head coach Luem Khen Koo, who joined Tan and other NMIFA officials in last weekend\u2019s ceremony, believes the growing numbers of NMI players getting opportunities to compete in the collegiate ranks, will encourage more players\u2014especially female ones\u2014to try the sport. Wally is the seventh NMI female player to move up to collegiate ranks since 2016. In the men\u2019s side, more than 10 NMI players have played in the collegiate league.<\/p>\n

NMI Men\u2019s National Team head coach and NMIFA technical director Michiteru Mita reminded Toves and Wally to be role models on and off the pitch and capitalize on every opportunity to play against high-level teams and learn from them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NMI National Team pool players Merrick Toves and Britany Wally will continue their soccer journey…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":373138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[232],"class_list":["post-373134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373134","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=373134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}