NMI national football team head coach Sugao Kambe said it makes sense to stir the locals’ interest in football as they continue to develop the sports in the CNMI.
He said that among the seven teams currently competing in Invitational Men’s Football League, only the, International Football Club, the Matansa and the Independent Football Club have local players.
The Guam men’s national team he said is composed mostly of the locals unlike the NMI’s national team which has only a few NMI descents.
The NMIFA, Kambe said is starting to spread the football habit to the grass root by holding scholastic competitions among elementary and high school students in public and private schools.
Every scholastic meet, he said there were at least seven to eight children who made it to the NMIFA Youth League Spring Season that NMIFA continues to hold annually.
Today, the annual club tournament has six teams in the six years old and under, eight years and under and 10 years old and under divisions.
Kambe expressed hope that while they continue their youth program, they would slowly make football another sports that will bring honor to the CNMI sports family.
