Saipan Soccer Schools caps camp with festival

Green and Yellow teams’ players battle for the ball during their championship game in the U8 division of the SSS 2014 Summer Camp’s mini tournament last Saturday at the TSL Sports Complex. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The festival featured a round-robin tournament for each age group with four teams formed in each division. Green Team went on to win the U8 contest against Yellow, 2-1, while Red Team triumphed in the U10 division versus Blue Team, 2-1.

The U8 champion squad was composed of Sagar Khadka, Prakhusan Rana, Marthan Cabrera, and Angela Xu. Khadka scored the two goals for Green Team and was also named as the most valuable player in the U8 age group. Green tied Yellow at the end of the elimination, forcing the two teams to play another match to determine the division champion. Yellow, behind Wataru Kadokura scored the first goal, before Sagar equalized and later hit the go-head goal on a breakaway play a few seconds before the five-minute match ended. Joining Kadokura on the runner-up Yellow Team were Julia Christine Jinang, Khojiro Goto, Akash Rai, and Joshua Capati.

Members of champion squad received balls from SSS, while Yellow Team players and participants from the two other squads received gifts from organizers. Blue Team, which was composed of Kenny Laquian, Jereme Quimzon, David Kahdka, Sunshine Gautum, and Mariana Katherine Angeles, took the fair play award. Completing the U8 division was Red Team, which was made up of Anthony Bergancia, Daniel Jim, Angelo Maliwanag, and Megan Rana.

In the U10 age group, the champion Red Team was led by Taka Borja, who scored one of the goals in the finals against Blue Team and was selected MVP in the division. Jerick Quimzon drilled the other goal and was joined on the squad by Elvira Zhang, and William Jones. Blue Team was bannered by Akira Kadokura, who tallied the lone goal for his squad, which also had Rohan Basnet, Julianne Hall, Leo Takahashi, and Ichiro Borja.

Green Team was handed the fair play award in the U10 division. The squad was composed of A.J. Ortega, Praise Woo, Audrey Castro, and Aditya Rai. Completing the field was Yellow Team, which had Khotaro Goto, Richard and Aubrey Castro, Melvin Rai, and Jason Quimzon as members.

Meanwhile, camp director Jershwin Angeles thanked the parents for enrolling their children in two-monthlong event.

“We’ve seen a lot of improvement from the kids during the camp. We saw players who have potentials and can now play in the upcoming youth league. We hope you will continue to encourage your kids to join our camp so we can help them improve not only their football skills, but also their social skills. Thanks you very much for entrusting your children to us,” Angeles said during the awards presentation.