By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
FORTY young footballers from the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association’s Junior National Academy, or JNA — 22 boys and 18 girls — traveled to the Philippines on March 30 for a 10-day training camp, departing on the inaugural Philippine Airlines flight that marked the resumption of Saipan-Manila service.
The players, all between 10 and 12 years old, make up the youngest JNA cohort ever sent off-island for international-level training, according to head coach and program director Jersh “Coach Jersh” Angeles.
“I’m bringing 40 kids, ages 10 to 12 — 22 boys and 18 girls — and we’re going to have a training camp in the Philippines,” Angeles said. “This is the Junior National Academy, an eight-month program, and this is preparing them before they step into the national team.”
The team is training at Tuloy FC in Alabang, less than an hour from Manila’s airport. The 10-day camp includes training sessions and matches against local clubs.
Angeles said the program focuses on building strong fundamentals so players enter the national team system with a higher level of readiness.
“We are coaching them in the basics so when they step into the national team, they’ll be ready,” he said. “At the end of the program, we go back to the island and compete internationally to gauge where the players are in their development.”
Exposure to stronger competition is essential, he added.
“The level here in the CNMI is not the same as in other countries,” Angeles said. “So we need to compete against them to understand where we stand.”
The JNA program has already shown clear results over the years.
“You can clearly see the difference between players who came from the Junior National Academy and those who did not,” he said. “When they play on the national team, there’s a big difference in knowledge and skills. Our goal as coaches is to bridge this gap and get them ready for international play.”
Angeles also expressed gratitude to the families supporting the young athletes.
“I just want to say thank you to the parents who are very supportive — without their support, these kids would not be able to continue training,” he said. “Everyone’s excited and happy that we’ll be traveling and playing against teams from other countries.”
The team is expected to return to Saipan later this week.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
