Encouraging the Young Girls

Our Suba Lakers Football Club hosted its first ever tournament for Under 13 year old girls. Fourteen teams showed up early on the 20th October, a Kenyan National Holiday. Our club officials were hoping for around six teams so we were stunned at the response. Even despite the heavy rains that had made the roads difficult to travel on (and also washed away the lines we had drawn on the field the previous day) the teams arrived early which is rare here. Many people commented that this was the first time they had ever seen a tournament like this in Mbita. Each team played with seven players and we used a smaller field which gave the players more chances to touch the ball.

Our goal was to encourage the young girls to be developing their various talents. Many times girls don't get the opportunity to play at their schools because the boys take the ball and dominate the field. If girls get to play, then it is usually the older ones, which leaves these younger ones left out. We also wanted to use the tournament as a way to spread the Gospel and to encourage the young girls in other ways. A pastor came and shared a message with all the teams gathered around before the seminfinals began. Also, a successful woman from the community share some words of wisdom to motivate and inspire these young girls to work hard in school and take good care of their bodies.

Age vetting was a difficult process as almost every coach brought older girls that we had to disqualify. In fact, one team had seven girls who did not make our age cut. The sad part is that the coaches would prep the girls to lie about their age and year of birth; a very common practice in this country.

Each team was able to play at least two matches and most played three matches. The winning team from each pool qualified for semifinals in the afternoon. In one semifinal Temo from Rusinga Island met with Wanga Primary where my good friend is the principal. In the other seminfinal CGA face Milimani. CGA allowed their first goal of the day by one of their own players heading it backwards into their own goal. It was a heartbreaking way to lose, but they rebounded to blow out Wanga in the third place match. Milimani won the championship on penalty kicks in a hard fought match.

We were able to feed lunch to each team and also give them a football and certificate. Each coach received a t-shirt. And we handed out many awards like cleats, t-shirts, goalkeeper gloves, etc. to the outstanding players. Everyone went home happy.

It was an incredibly fun day and very successful in motivating the girls from all around this district.