THE sports that we can – and we have – do(ne) well at the national level are American football, rugby, baseball, and women’s soccer plus futsal – which is a five-sided indoor soccer version.
We have proof that we can do well in the aforementioned sports: The Guam rugby national team tied India a short time back. American football teams have historically done well (for e.g. – GCC Tradesmen defeating Kansai University in Osaka in ’92; written up by R. Vincent Tupaz in the Marianas Variety – Guam Edition, January 2, back page) simply because it is played at the grassroots level and there is a great fondness for it because of the media influence from the States. And Guam’s rugby team benefit from the plays who also ply their trade in American football.
No one doubts Guam potential in baseball as that is another American sport like American football that is not universal and hence leaves Guam in a better position to compete.
Last sport, women’s soccer, brought us glory when we first joined FIFA in ’96 when our national team under Head Coach Marty Budreau defeated Singapore 4-0 in a friendly (Jane O’Conner and Lulu Quigley scoring 2 goals for the rout.) and later in ’99 in the Philippines when we, under Head Coach Noel Casilao, defeated Hong Kong 2-0 in the Asian Women’s Championship (Taylor Dervish and Kelly Malay scoring the goals in that first official win). Futsal at the national level for women is on the docket and if we start now, we will do well as that is a new sport.
Sports that Guam will do well at the national level have to have several characteristics: Other nations are also new to the sport so we are not playing catch-up; where we do not need a certain height nor weight (“you can’t teach height” as GBC official Bob Pelkey said); that there is a national love for the sport where you don’t have to depend on the association for top-down guidance for growth as that is ARTIFICIAL and will peter out after kids reach a certain age.

MATT PHILIPS
Mangilao, Guam