Courtesy: Solomon Star


Behind SI’s futsal achievement

SOLOMON Islands junior futsal players will again be participating in the 27 the Australian National Futsal Championship in Gold Coast next week.
A female and male team left Honiara on Tuesday and are currently accommodated at the Dural Sports and Leisure Centre in Sydney.
They will be travelling to Brisbane this week ahead of the championship which starts Tuesday next week and ends on January 13.
This year, a total of 139 teams will be participating in the championship with 47 coming from the host state Queensland.
Teams from New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), South Australian and Western Australia will be competing in this tournament.
Solomon Islands has always won in the past since participating in the Australian National Futsal Championship in 2003.
To date the Solomon Islands Football Federation has recognised the newly futsal code as a priority of soccer development in this football mad nation.
But this success came with the help of Dural Sports and Leisure Centre based in Sydney.
Below is their story on how they eventually introduced futsal to Solomon Islands in 2002 and has grown immensely:
Our world is in chaos. Asia and the Pacific is one area that has been severely affected. As part of the Pacific the Solomon Islands has had its own share of turmoil. Two years of ethnic tension and fighting ended in December 2000.
Guerrillas for the Malaitan Eagle Force and the Isatambu Freedom Movement have ended their nightly gun and machete battles on the outskirts of the capital Honiara.
It is estimated that 7,000 young men were involved in the conflict.
Hundreds lost their lives, thousands their homes and possessions.
The country is still reeling from the loss of infrastructure and the ‘loss’ of the tourist industry, being a country that has for many years had negative tourist advices issued by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs.
The Solomon Islands has a 95 percent unemployment rate.
It is against that setting that the involvement of Dural Sport and Leisure Centre in the Solomon’s is so exciting!
As a Centre and Church they participate yearly in that program, and have greatly valued Australian contribution on the Samaritan Purse.
During Christmas 2000, shoe boxes from Australia found their way to the Solomon Islands and so did Brian Codrington and his daughter Sarah to participate in the distribution.
It was then that links were made with the friendly people of the Solomons, and plans evolved for Dural Sport and Leisure Centre to introduce the sport of futsal with a view to commencing an indoor centre in Honiara.
Edd Waters joined Brian in May 2002 travelling to the Solomons as the final stages of planning were put together.
On 9th July 2002 a team of seven flew from the cold of Sydney to the heat and humidity of Honiara for ten days of adventure, and of course, hard work.
It was a hectic schedule: up each morning at 6.30am, and after a quick breakfast the team headed off to arrive at schools by 8am.
Clinics were held at two Honiara schools each morning to coach children aged 7 to 14 years. Then in the afternoon those two schools came together for a challenge event in the 8 years, 10 years and 12 years categories.
The quality of play was first class. There are some very gifted young players in the Solomon’s and as each day passed the crowds in the Honiara’s Multipurpose hall increased in number. Something was going on here!!
The team hosted referee and coach training over four evenings. With 40 referees and 55 coaches participating the future of this new sport in the Islands looks very promising indeed.
The team took time each day to share their Christian faith with the children and their teachers, and these were very special times. The friendly people of the Solomon’s opened their hearts to us and some special relationship were established.
The way has been paved for us to partner with our Solomon friends on an ongoing basis, and to help further establish the sports ministry. Further teams will travel across for development work, and an invitation has already been extended to players from the Solomon Islands to participate in the Australian National Futsal Championships to be held in Sydney in January, 2003.
The links will not just be confined to futsal, with our Solomon friends already asking about the possibility of netball being included in our plans for the future.
The team consisted of Mark and Scott Blunden, Brian Codrington, Paul Linton, David Martin, Rob Varela and Ben Waters. Each team member paid for their trip, but that cost was nothing in comparison to the value of the life changing experience and the friendships that were formed.
Our aim is to continue to work alongside our Solomon friends to rebuild a sense of self-esteem and self- respect for the Solomon Islanders, and to establish a sports ministry that will impact that country in a wide variety of ways.
Brian and Edd returned from a planning trip late November 2002, where we committed to take two teams of futsal coaches in April and July, 2003.
It was exciting to see the legacy of our team that had visited in July, 2002. To witness a schools competition in its final stages, with coaches and referees that had been trained during our July visit, and to see the selection trials for the 12 year old players that we hosted here at Dural over January, 2003 for their participation in the Australian Nationals was both satisfying and exciting.
A team of 10 players and three officials made the trip.
Our involvement in the Solomon’s is a great example of what can be achieved when groups work together to achieve a common goal.
Our partners in this venture are: Samaritan’s Purse Australia, NSW Futsal, who provided some apparel for the July trip; have invited our Solomon friends to participate in the National Futsal Championships, and have funded their playing strips for the tournament.
Several individuals, who wish to remain anonymous, who have provided funds or equipment, including a computer for the ongoing team in Honiara,
Friends and Church family, who continue to pray for the impact of this venture, and for wisdom and safety in all our travels and planning.
On Monday 22nd August, 2005 two 15 year-old boys from the Solomon Islands began a long-term futsal exchange programme to Australia.
Elliot Ragomo and Jack Wetney, both talented players from Honiara, were selected by their coaches and peers to participate in the inaugural 10-month long programme.
As part of the programme, the two boys participated in local futsal competition at Dural Sport an Leisure Centre, as well as competing for DSLC’s representative futsal teams in the Soccer NSW Futsal Premier League competition
DSLC Futsal Club Coach, Rob Varela, said, ‘The boys will bring an exciting brand of skillful futsal to our teams, and that will present a challenge to our regular representative players to raise their own abilities.
“We hope that the regular training will provide the Solomon boys with the opportunity to learn about the discipline required to succeed in futsal at the highest level’.
Furthermore, DSLC has organised an inaugural tour to Europe, for elite futsal players aged 15/16, in June 2006.
Both Ragomo and Wetney will have the opportunity to participate in the trip, which will encompass a fortnight in both Italy and Spain.
However, with a literacy rate of only 30.3 percent and with only 24 percent of children reaching secondary education in the Solomon Islands, the exchange programme involves greater concerns than just sport.
During their term in Australia, Ragomo and Wetney studied at William Clarke College, an Anglican school based at Kellyville. The two boys participated in school life as regular, everyday students, and completed last year enrolled in Year 8.
Since 2000, Dural Sport an Leisure Centre, a ministry of Dural Baptist Church has been assisting Solomon Island communities to forge stronger ties through futsal, and has helped indigenous people to strengthen a previously unknown sport into a national pastime.
Centre Manager and Church Pastor Brian Codrington said “Our aim is to make the difference in lives physically, relationally, emotionally and spiritually.”
As part of its support, DSLC has sponsored a number of Solomon Island junior teams to come out to Australia every year, to contest the Australian Futsal Championships.
The $15.000 cost of the programme has been funded with the support of Michelago (an Australian company with interests in the Solomon Islands), Westpac (Solomon Islands), the Solomon Islands Association of NSW, and Dural Sport and Leisure Centre.
William Clarke College has generously committed to fully support the boys’ education needs, including tuition fees, uniforms, and excursions.
It was through such help that another futsal team is again participating in next week’s championship in Gold Coast.
National futsal coordinator Eddie Omokirio who is accompanying the teams is determined that they will bringing home some pride for Solomon Islands.



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com