NMIFA caps spring season with festival

Kanoa, left, and MP United players chase the ball during their game in the U8 division of the 2017 NMIFA Youth Spring Festival last Saturday at the Koblerville Elementary School Field. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Three divisions in the 2017 NMIFA Youth Spring League wrapped up the season with a festival, holding a series of matches last Saturday at the Koblerville Elementary School Field.

Teams in the three age groups—co-ed U8, U10, and U12 (non-competitive)—played multiple games from 9am to 4pm, bringing together about 200 youth players, who showed their improved skills in each of the 30-minute match spread in the three pitches in KES.

“It’s nice to see kids really enjoying the game and having fun with their teammates despite the heat,” said NMIFA technical director Michiteru Mita, who watched the association’s festival for the first time since taking over the post of Kiyoshi Sekiguchi early this year.

“I’ve been going around and observing games during the season and I could say that I saw a lot of youth players with potentials. We just have to encourage them to keep on playing and make them enjoy soccer so that they will stay in the program,” Mita added.

The NMIFA technical director also thanked the coaches from the different clubs and the players’ parents for bringing the kids to every game this season and watching the matches and supporting the players.

The spring season as well as the festival had squads in the three age groups divided into two pools and each team were guaranteed to play three matches.

The co-ed U12 (non-competitive) featured teams from all seven Saipan-based clubs—Paire, Shirley’s Matansa, MP United, Kanoa, TanHoldings, and Southern United. In the co-ed U8, MP United had two teams, while the rest fielded one each. For the co-ed U12 festival, TanHoldings and MP United entered two squads each, while the rest of the clubs were represented by one team.

Results in each game were taken, but not recorded, as the festival wanted to promote sportsmanship and team play instead of focusing on competition.

FA Cup set for April 29
NMIFA will hold the FA Boys and Girls Cup on April 29 with the venue to be announced later.

Teams interested in joining the competition for co-ed U12 and girl U15 are requested to turn in filled-out entry and roster forms as soon as possible as NMIFA needs to work on the schedule of matches. There is no limit in the entries.

The co-ed U12 (competitive), which is scheduled to complete its games next weekend, has five teams in Kanoa-1 and Kanoa-2, MP United, Matansa, and newly crowned division champion TanHoldings. The girls U15age group is done with the spring season with Shirley’s FC ruling the category for the fifth straight time. Kanoa, MP United, Southern United, Paire, TanHoldings, and Matansa were the other teams that played in the girls U15 division.