NMIFA bulging at the seams

More than 260 kids of all ages showed up at American Memorial Park Tuesday night to take part in the first league-wide practice of the Northern Mariana Islands Football (Soccer) Association, and players, parents, and organizers got their kicks off of the controlled chaos.

With more than double the participation of the prior organization, NMIFA secretary Peter Coleman said that while he is happy with the turnout, he was not exactly planning for so many players on opening day.

“We went from 120 last year to officially 262 and people are still handing us registration forms. [AMP director] Chuck Sayon has been fantastic. Last year this space was sufficient, but we have so many kids that we want to use the space used by the Korean men, so I would like to do a couple of things. I need an emissary who speaks Korean to see if they will join our league as a men’s division with the other guys using our equipment and to let us use that space on Tuesday nights. Otherwise we may have to move some of the age groups to another night. It’s just too cramped. I honestly didn’t expect this many kids,” he said.

NMIFA board member Lynn Tenorio echoed Coleman’s sentiments and said that she was overwhelmed by the size of the local participation both on and off the field.

“I don’t think that any of us [expected this]. I think that the parents who came out to watch their kids were just amazed at just the mass of kids running around out here. I didn’t expect the response that we’ve got from the community. Being in the health field, this is exactly the kind of activity that we want to promote—having the kids out moving and then hopefully the parents,” she said.

Some have speculated that the large turnout was due in part to the rise of soccer’s popularity sparked by the improvement of the United States National Team in the Olympics and in the recent World Cup qualifiers, but for parent Carol Rauschenberger it was just a matter of timing for her boy Sam.

“He just turned six and he’s really blossomed with the opportunity to play. I tried with soccer a year ago and Aikido, but he wouldn’t do it. Now I think he’s just ready and can’t wait for Tuesdays and Saturdays,” she said.

Young Rauschenberger was kicking the ball around with his playmate Akun Sondheim, whose father Art thinks that NMIFA is offering a much-needed activity for the kids.

“It’s a great activity. It’s what we need all of the kids in Saipan to be involved in,” he said.

The next step is the coach’s only meeting tonight at the Hard Rock Café at 7:30pm when they will place the players on the team. Coleman said that the goal is to have each of the teams evenly balanced heading into the season, and added a couple of basic rules which he will follow to the letter.

“There are two rules I have. The first rule is that anyone coaching or assisting, that their kids are automatically retained on the team. The second rule is, to the extent that we can with the sponsors, if the company is sponsoring it and their son or daughter is in that age group, they will be walking around with their parent’s logo on the shirt,” he said.

The real fun begins soon after all the teams are chosen, as all of the kids will return to the field on Saturday at 3:30pm to meet their teammates for the first time.