Barry gets coaching post

The CNMI Men’s National Team’s Bo Barry, right, is being watched by a Shonan Bellmare defender during their training match in Japan in July this year. (Contributed Photo)

After suiting up for the CNMI national team on several occasions, Bo Barry will try his hand at coaching, as he was selected to call the shots for a high school team in Florida.

“I am very happy and very excited for this new challenge,” said Barry, who got the coaching post for the boys high school varsity team of the Howard W. Blake High School in Tampa.

“I don’t feel any pressure, it’s more like of excitement,” said the St. Leo University graduate, who had his debut with the Yellow Jackets last Friday as the squad played against Braulio Alonso High School.

Barry acknowledged that as a coach, he now has more responsibilities and believes the things he learned and experienced from his coaches in the CNMI and in the collegiate ranks will help him in this new journey.

“I have had a lot of coaches and they all have prepared me for this moment. It makes me appreciate all the coaches that I had the honor to play under. It’s more than what it seems—coaches have a lot more responsibilities than I’ve ever thought,” Barry said.

Meanwhile, CNMI men’s national team head coach Michiteru Mita and MP United Football Club vice president Norman Del Rosario led the Commonwealth’s soccer community in congratulating Barry for his new milestone.

“I would like to congratulate Bo on his new career as a coach. I’m also glad he started coaching right after he took the AFC C license course held in June this year. A coach needs to have a lot of practice to be a better coach. He has a lot of national team experience as a player. That experience would be good advantage for him to be a better coach,” Mita said.

“I hope one day, experienced players like him will come back to the islands and coach our young players. They would be good role models for our young players. A national player who grew up here and went off-island to play soccer in mainland and then come back to the island and contribute to our soccer community, that’s awesome. We need qualified local coaches to further develop our soccer program,” the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association technical director added.

For Del Rosario, who was also Barry’s coach with MP United, he was not surprised to see the CNMI national team player becoming a coach.

“Bo has this mentality of helping out young players and always thinking of how he can pass on his knowledge in the sport. Now is a great opportunity for him to do this and as a coach he will not only teach them about soccer, but also about brotherhood. We, at MP United, are very proud of Bo, as he steps into coaching and starts helping young kids become better players on and off the pitch and guide them toward being responsible members of the community/school,” Del Rosario said.