Secondary School BallGames 2016

Secondary School Ball Games are some exciting times for the Suba Lakers. The girls don't get to play together as a team, but instead they are each playing for their school teams. All of our girls attend schools which have some of the best football teams in our region. Naturally, most of the schools make it though their local play-offs to advance to the next level. The culmination of this is the Regional Tournament. By this point, only the best teams have advanced. 

This year 3 of the 4 teams in the Regional Tournament semi-final round were teams with Suba Lakers. These included Moi Girl Sindo, Jera Secondary School, and Nyakach Girls. Jera, who has dominated girls football in the region for many years, was matched against a tough Sindo team. Sindo won, 2-1. Nyakach took on Ekinyoro to win 1-0. 

The finals brought together Nyakach vs. Sindo. On the Nyakach team we have 5 Suba Lakers; Lilian Awour (GK), Winnie Ogola, Eunice Konguru, Florence Wangoi, Lencer Adoyo and Maurine Owiti. For Moi Girls Sindo the Suba Lakers are represented by Lydia Awino, Brenda Sharon, and Christine Achila. It was a tough match which ended 0-0 in regulation time. The Champion was determined by penalty kicks. With Suba Laker Lilian in the goal for Nyakach, she didn’t allow anything into her net. Nyakach won 1-0.

 
Sindo and Nyakach will both proceed to Nationals to be held in Kisumu. Two slots are permitted since Lake Region is the host for Nationals. This year we will have the largest showings of Suba Lakers at Secondary School Ball Games Nationals with 9 girls representing the club. We are so proud of these girls for their success on the field, but also for their character and leadership among their teams.

KYFA Tournament 2016

Each school break the Suba Lakers are often invited to a variety of football tournament. It's a challenge to figure out which ones to attend with the limited time and funds. Without much hesitation, the officials chose the annual Kisumu Youth Football Association (KYFA) Tournament in Kisumu for this Term 1 School Break. This is the best nation-wide tournament in Kenya for females. Not only does KYFA stand by the rules, they also organize great speakers to talk with the girls on relevant subject matters. 

This year, with many of our Suba Lakers at secondary schools with great football programs, several of them played at this tournament with their secondary school teams. We still had enough girls remaining to make a strong team. We were in a fierce and competitive pool with top football teams who are some of our biggest rivals. Even though our defense never allowed a single goal, we didn’t advance beyond the pool play which shows how tough the competition was. It’s always great to participate in these tournaments and especially against good teams.

Primary School Ball Games 2016

Lake Region wins the National Championship!

Each year during Term 1, the Primary School Ball Games are underway. These start at the lowest level, the school, the base and the zone (which is approximately comparative to the town), proceeding up through the district, county and region until finally the national level. At each level, the the best players from that given area are selected for the team. In turn, only the top players advance to each level. 

Our Suba Lakers all played at the lower levels (the school, base, zone, district) and many were selected for the County Team to compete at the Regional Level. To make it on the Regional Team to compete at the National Tournament is a big deal. This year 3 Suba Lakers we selected and played at Nationals; Apeto, Lencer and Owiti!

Two years ago, in 2014, Lake Region won the primary school ball games for the first time ever. The team consisted of 6 Suba Lakers. This was a huge success for the Region and proved that even the most rural parts of Kenya could train-up great female football players. After a disappointing 2015, Lake Region again won the National Championship this year. However, the larger success is that since the Suba Lakers began in 2009, others in the region have started to take girls football more serious. They have invested time and energy to develop these girls’ talent. The proof is in the Region’s ability to win another national title!

2015 High School Graduates

Congratulations to our 2015 High School Graduates!!

Graduating High School is no small feat for many of our girls who come from poor, rural homes, often attending a run-down ill-equipped primary school.

In November, six Suba Lakers completed their high school education by taking the KCSE; Kenyan Certificate of Secondary Education. A huge congratulations to Eliver Awuor, Caren Akeyo, Dorthy Adhambio, Damaris Awino, Alicent Awour and Raysher Jedida! 

We are so proud of these girls for their efforts to work hard in school and overcome enormous odds to finish secondary school.

A Special Visit from America!

Suba Lakers Club Co-Founder Joe Peterson and his wife, Daneen, had the opportunity to take a short trip back to Kenya in July. They first visited Mbita where Joe had lived and worked for 10 years with Christ's Gift Academy. There they met up with all the girls in Primary School who live around Mbita. It was a total surprise to them. The girls were called together for a meeting and then suddenly, across the football pitched, walked Uncle Joe and Auntie Daneen! As the girls saw them walking, they started running toward them and were greeted with hugs and hellos. 

Joe and Daneen also traveled to the rural places outside of Kisii to attend the Secondary School Regional Ball Games. Of our 24 girls currently in secondary school, 14 of them were playing with their school teams at this Championship. Joe and Daneen had a wonderful time getting to watch each of them play and spend some time together between matches over the 2-day tournament. Even though it was brief, we were all very grateful for this special time with them again.

Suba Laker Day May 2015

Primary school girls, secondary school girls and even some college girls participated in the Suba Laker Day on Saturday, May 2, 2015.  Eighteen of them had recently competed against each other in the KYFA Nationwide Ladies Tournament playing for their school teams, but on this day they were all back together again as one team.

Coach Dave and Coach Paul had recently attended a coaches training organized by the Kenya Football Federation.  The training was done by German trained coaches.  Coach Dave and Coach Paul were able to put into practice the things they had learned during this one day training with the Suba Lakers.  They subjected the players to a lot of drills and good teaching, but there was also some time for fun and games.  

These girls love coming back together and sharing stories.  Some of them secondary school girls were given time in front of the large group to share their team’s experience at the KYFA tournament.  While a number of the  primary school girls shared their experiences during the ball-games which took place during Term 1 in March and April.   

Visitors from a YWAM team in Los Angeles attended the training and helped out in different ways.  The girls just enjoyed spending some time with the visitors.  A special guest from Suba Environmental Education of Kenya (SEEK) also had time to share with the girls about making good choices in their lives. 

Our secondary girls all travelled back to their boarding schools two days later to start Term 2.  They were excited for their school soccer season this term and to see which of their school team will win the Regional tournament, go to Nationals and get bragging rights over the other Suba Laker girls.

Pray for a successful Term 2 in the classroom and on the field for all our girls!

KYFA 2015

A few Suba Laker players and officials

At the end of April, 18 Suba Laker girls participated in the annual KYFA Nationwide Ladies Tournament.  For the past 8 years, the Suba Lakers have always brought our own teams to participate in the Open Age category and in the Under 15 category.  This year was different because so many of their school teams were participating in the tournament to try and help them prepare for the upcoming season in Term 2.  Even though we didn’t participate as a club, we were thankful that so many of our girls were able to participate in the excellent tournament.  

What makes the KYFA tournament special is that all of the teams “camp out” together at a local primary school for 3 nights.  Each team sleeps in a different classroom, but they share their meals together, interact around the campus and KYFA brings in successful women from around the country who share with the girls from their own experiences and motivate the girls to strive for success in other areas of their life besides only soccer.  

The soccer part of the program has become more and more competitive each year with most of the best secondary school teams from around the Lake Region, Western Region and usually a couple of strong club teams from Nairobi or other places.  

The Suba Lakers had 5 girls playing for Jera, 2 girls for Kobala, 5 for Mawego, 3 for Nyakach, and 3 for Ugari.  Kobala was in a very tough pool, but played very well drawing with eventual champion Nyakach and powerhouse Tartar while defeating Lubino 2-0.  Caren played outstanding leading the team from the midfield position.  Unfortunately they weren’t able to advance to the semifinals.  Ugari and Mawego were also not able to advance to the knockout stages.  

Lillian, 9th grade, was flawless in the 
goal box for her team!

Jera performed well in their pool winning three games (1-0, 1-0, 1-0) and losing one to a strong Soccer Queens team 2-0.  They finished 2nd in their pool and moved on to the semifinals where they lost to the Tartar in a close 1-0 game.  Jera was only playing with their school going girls while Tartar had also included some girls who had finished school already.  In the 3rd place playoffs they again lost to the Soccer Queens by the same score as their first match in the preliminaries 2-0.  This placed them 4th.  All five of their Suba Lakers played a lot and contributed to their success including Teresa, Leah, June, Raisha and Alicent.  As a 1st year student, June is fitting in well on the team.  Leah played outstanding defense and Teresa was able to play well in a new position as a wing.  Alicent, the Jera captain, unfortunately suffered a knee injury and was limited from the 2nd game on.  

Nyakach Girls Football Team
KYFA 2015 Champions, Open Age

Nyakach finished the pool play with 2 wins, 1 draws and 1 loss.  Their wins came against last year’s National Champions, Butere, 1-0 and a 5-0 trouncing of Lubino.  They finished 2nd in their pool and were matched up in the semifinals with Soccer Queens.  The game went to post-match penalty kicks where Suba Laker goalkeeper Lillian Awuor won the match for them by saving 1 of the 5 penalty kicks.  In the finals Nyakach got revenge against the only team that had beaten them in the tournament, Tartar.  They flipped the score on the earlier 1-0 loss and this time beat Tartar 1-0 to win the finals and capture the 1st place trophy.  It was an important win for Nyakach to give them confidence heading into the secondary school soccer season.  The past two years Nyakach has lost in the Regional Championship, being denied an opportunity to go to Nationals.  Lillian was the most outstanding goalkeeper of the tournament, helping her team win the championship.          

We are grateful that so many of the Suba Lakers had the opportunity to play in the tournament.  Playing many matches against strong competition will make each of them better and improve their teams.  It will be fun to see which of these teams is able to win the ultimate prize and capture the Regional Championship in July!