Over the past month, the Suba Lakers have been busy preparing our primary school girls for the School Ball Games that will begin soon. The weekly sessions have been aimed at improving their skills and getting them into shape.
Several of the Suba Lakers are returning this year with a lot of experience and their sights set on moving further than they did last year. As young players, Siska Verah and Florence Wangoi were key contributors up to the Sub-County level in 2014, but with a year of maturity, they want to play a bigger role this year and go further. Felistas Atieno, Mourine Owiti and Phylice Akoth all helped their team win the Homa Bay County Championships, but were disappointed when they weren’t selected to move on to Regionals like some of their teammates were. Felistas turned into a very strong central defender who uses her aggressiveness, size and skill to keep the ball away from the goal. Mourine has been a powerful, fast defensive wing player for many years now. Phylice uses her speed to put pressure on the opponent’s defense as a striker. Last year Lencer Adoyo was the starting defender and arguably the most valuable player on the Lake Region team that won their first ever National championship. With that experience under her belt she is excited about the opportunity of helping her team win back to back national championships.
The early stages of the ball-games should be starting any day now. The ball games begin at the school level (or Base) and progress up through the Zone, Division, Sub-County (District), County, Region and culminates at Nationals!
We wish our Suba Lakers success in all of their competitions!
Equipment is always a challenge for the Suba Lakers.
It is difficult to find good balls which will endure being played on the rough Kenyan fields filled with rocks and thorns and usually surrounded by barbed wire fences. Soccer cleats (known as 'football boots') are very expensive in Kenya. Most of the cleats which can be purchased in Kenya are already used. Because the fields are usually very hard with a lot of rocks and dirt and very little grass, the cleats also take a big beating. And many times because we only have few cleats to choose from, the girls end up picking a pair that doesn’t fit them so well. When they wear ones that are a little too small or too big, it is also rough on the shoes, especially since they were previously used by someone else.
In March, a visiting team from Montana, brought 13 brand new pairs of cleats which were donated by a couple who wanted to bless the Suba Lakers. The cleats were received by our primary girls with big smiles. Some of them had probably never seen a brand new pair of soccer cleats! What a special gift for the club!
Through the U.S. Soccer Foundation's Passback program, we also recently received some lightly used soccer equipment which included more pairs of soccer cleats, goalkeeper gloves, used soccer balls, socks and a few jerseys.
The donations were a big encouragement to the club officials and the players.
Learn more about the Passback program and how YOU can organize a donation drive to bless another soccer program somewhere around the world!
