‘U14 CNMI Football Team made us proud’

Recently our U14 Boys National Football Team traveled to Guam to play in the East Asian Football Federation’s U14 Festival. Joining the CNMI in the festival were Guam, China, Japan, Mongolia, Chinese Taipei, Korea Republic, DPR Korea, Hong Kong, and Macau. It was such an honor to be invited to join this level of competition especially considering that our football association is so young. What was remarkable was that our boys did an amazing job competing with teams that have a much higher population from which to select players as well as much longer football histories. They made us so proud through their positive sportsmanship proven by winning five green cards during the tournament. Their actions didn’t go unnoticed as we received many compliments from officials about our boys improvements from two years ago and their never-say-die attitude.

Our boys were outsized and a bit inexperienced and yet they never gave in or let down their fighting spirit. From the first whistle to the last, our boys were warriors. Our 80-lb. defenders took rockets from the other teams’ 170-lb. forwards again and again. Ten-year-old Hunter Jewell took down a towering forward on a clean tackle in front of the goal which prevented a shot on goal. There were many miraculous saves from players especially from our goalkeepers Caleb Arriola and Josiah Orlando. After playing North Korea and watching the amazing efforts of CNMI goalkeeper Caleb Arriola everyone in the crowd, including officials and spectators, clapped as he left the field.

Coach Nick Swaim had this to say about the event, “Our U14 National Team represented the CNMI and NMIFA with great respect on and off the field. I am very proud how they performed and played until the whistle of the last game, and the respect they earned from the officials, other teams and our supporters. I have seen improvement in one week at the higher level and hope to see more success in the coming years.”

Our midfielders and forwards also pushed the ball forward against the odds to have some very good opportunities on goal. Angelo Jones attacked the goal and surprised the Macau goalkeeper by putting his face in front of a punt in order to try and score. It was a near miss and created a lot of excitement on the field. Jaythan Camacho kept the excitement alive by a few breakaways to the goal and shots against teams like Chinese-Taipei and Hong Kong.

Few players would have had the tenacity and moxie to put themselves in a position to play football giants knowing the odds were stacked against them. We sent 18 willing players from the CNMI that did. They not only fought but they improved dramatically over the course of the week. They learned so much about the game by playing boys that were better than them. They rose to the occasion and will make our youth program stronger as a result.

“The Youth Festival is for the improvement of football throughout Asia. In just one week our U14 team has gained more knowledge and skill than months of training. The tournament was very successful for our development of youth football in the CNMI,” said Swain.

They also gained the positive attention from EAFF officials with their desire to play the game.

The EAFF U-14 Festival is a bi-annual event next slated for 2010. Because our team was so young, we will potentially be able to bring roughly half the team back next time. They will be bigger and should even have more skills through the continued development of the youth programs. We are currently putting the interscholastic program into place which should bring out even more youth players.

There are exciting things coming up for the CNMI youth in football! We would like to thank the NMIFA for affording the boys this fantastic opportunity. Additionally we would like to thank EAFF for inviting us. Thanks goes out also to our coach Nick Swaim; managers Peter Coleman and John Ravell; coaches who have volunteered over the season, Patty Coleman, Steve McKagan, Norman Camacho, Emily Gries, Katie Peters, Glen Smith, Brad Ruszala, and many more. A special thanks go out to our fans from coach Swaim.

“Thank you to the many fans that came out to support our team. We had the largest fan group and the best support of any team at the festival.” [B][I](Brenda Schultz)[/I][/B]