Coca Cola

On May 19th the Suba Lakers participated in the Coca Cola Tournament at Mbita High School. We were the only girls team from Mbita District invited. Our competition was Moi Girls Secondary School from Sindo where three of our girls are learning. It was supposed to be an Under 17 tournament, but as usually is the case in Kenya, they were not very strict with age. Those secondary school girls were considerably older than our mostly 6th and 7th graders. Competing against some of their older club teammates, the Lakers were a little hesitant at first, getting a feel for the game in the opening 10 minutes. But soon after, they settled in and took control of the match. Our young girls began dominating ball possession and created several chances, especially in the final minutes of the first half, but were unable to break through. The second half began like the first half ended and there was still no fruit for our hard labour. Against the grain of play, they got the ball into our box and one of our defenders handled it, giving them a penalty. Suba Laker Irine Achieng scored the penalty for Sindo just off the fingertips of our Goalkeeper Lillian Awuor. Undeterred, our young girls kept fighting and took back control of the game. A few minutes before time ran out Winny Akinyi beat the goalkeeper to a crossed ball and volleyed it over her head to tie up the score.

This time around there are no prizes in the coca cola tournament and the winning team doesn't advance (two years ago we reached the Provencal Semifinals). It is more like a talent search now so after the match they selected 9 of our players and 7 of the Sindo players (2 of our Suba Lakers) to form a team to move on to the next level next month. The club also got a set of long sleeve jerseys and a ball to take home with them, along with some good experience for their young players.