Yesterday, the Alaska Football Cup saw my debut as a football team coach (seriously).
Due to lack of manpower (even our coaches were lined-up as players in the Open Categories), had no choice but to coach our Girls U14 team (while Bro. Oly helped in coaching the Boys U11 team).
I am proud of all our players during last weekend’s tournament (there were 320 teams and 4,000++ players in all), but I am most proud of our Girls U14 team. Not that because I eventually became their coach, it was due to the fact that it was the very first time San Ildefonso Parish Makati Football Club – SIP FC fielded-in an All Girls U14 as far as anyone could remember.
I mean, the debut of our girls in the Alaska Cup saw matches between well established teams and clubs like Dream Big Pilipinas (big players), Alabang Football School (fast footballers), Parañaque Football Club (long-legged girls!) and powerhouse De La Salle – Zobel (do I need to give them a description, animo!).
The football field was barely playable (it was like a newly plowed rice field since it was raining all day Saturday), but our girls showed passion, teamwork and perseverance.
Though we were not able to win a single match out of the four games during the Elimination Round, we, however, managed to gave our opponents a hard time scoring — sort of saying “watch out for our team next Alaska Cup” 🙂 We were not trashed (said one of our player’s dad).
I am giving our SIPFC Girls U14 a moniker: SIPFC Team Diesel. When most of the teams were tired already after 2 matches, our girls started to rev up on their 3rd and 4th matches (almost noon time).
For the coaching staff, time to hit the drawing boards this weekend. As for the players, keep up the good work. Matulog kayo nang maaga at tigilan ang junk foods