Back-to-back weekends of planning, parents, and players accounted for a massive turn out for the Northern Marianas Islands Football (Soccer) Association as they race to ready for the resumption of world\u2019s favorite game.<\/p>\n
According to NMIFA secretary Peter Coleman, volunteers signed up roughly 200 players during both of the registration sessions at the American Memorial Park, and forms continue to come in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt went better than we anticipated. It\u2019s a new board, everybody\u2019s easy going, everybody\u2019s kids are playing, and everybody\u2019s really excited for it. Everything is going better than I had planned,\u201d said Coleman.<\/p>\n
Coleman now has to tackle the task of separating the forms by age groups and getting the lists together for the team selection process, but that he noticed a shortage of older players in the early stages.<\/p>\n
The only problem so far is that the league is a little shy of players for the age groups for players over 12. Coleman said that it is probably because NMIFA is offering the sport to the older kids for the first time. \u201cLet\u2019s assume you\u2019ve never played soccer or you haven\u2019t played for four or five years and you\u2019re 15 or 16 and you even have a desire to do it, I think the embarrassment factor, or the \u2018Oh gee, I guess I\u2019ll just sit it out\u2019 is probably kicking in with these kids because they have never had the opportunity to play organized soccer past age 12,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Coleman said that he has spoken with some of the local schools and told the kids to spread the word about the league in an effort to boost numbers among the high school aged kids, but said that may get to help mentor the youngsters during the season<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if we only have a few kids we can just play 3-on-3 game so that we can teach the kids to play and give them something to do. Even if we just have two teams they can just play each other,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
With the players and coaches in line, NMIFA\u2019s next needs come in the form of equipment and sponsors. So far the fledgling organization is a step ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout any sponsors yet, we have probably raised over $9,000 with registration and donations. All the goals and nets are already ordered from Hong Kong, but all the other equipment\u2014shin guards, balls, goalie gloves, and anything else we could do locally to support our patrons\u2014we are doing here,\u201d said Coleman.<\/p>\n
Shin guards will be mandatory for NMIFA, and Athlete\u2019s Foot in Joeten Susupe is offering NMIFA members a discount. In addition to the agreement with Joeten, Coleman sounded excited about the response from local businesses about sponsoring individual teams. While he didn\u2019t release any names, Coleman said that businesses are interested in paying $300 to have their logo emblazoned on their team\u2019s uniforms.<\/p>\n
Good news for NMIFA is also coming in the form of solidarity from regional organizations. In a show of brotherhood, the Guam Football Association is lending its assistance to NMIFA by offering the services of Coach Tsaki during next weekend\u2019s clinic for coaches and officials. The GFA also donated 30 brand new game balls as well.<\/p>\n
The new program is open to children between the ages of four and a half and 16 with interest and enthusiasm as the only prerequisites. In order for the players to participate in the NMIFA, they need only pay a one time registration fee of $25 per child.<\/p>\n
As with any new league, NMIFA need a number of volunteers to help out with almost every aspect, and plans are already underway for a coach\/referee clinic to be held next month as well as parents for coaching and officiating. While individuals with a background in the sport are encouraged to pass on their knowledge, training will provided and no experience is necessary.
\nNow that the registration phase is all taken care of, the teams will take to the sea of green for their first practices on Tuesday afternoon\u2019s at 4:30 pm in the AMP, and the highly anticipated games will be held on Saturday afternoons at 4:30 pm at the same location.
\nFor more information about the Northern Marianas Football Association, or to volunteer your assistance, contact Peter Coleman by calling 483-0771.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back-to-back weekends of planning, parents, and players accounted for a massive turn out for the Northern Marianas Islands Football (Soccer) Association as they race to ready for the resumption of world\u2019s favorite game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93180","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}