Courtesy: Solomon Star


Young futsal kids eye World Cup

FUTSAL coordinator Eddie Omokirio met up with young futsal players Elliot Lilo Ragomo and Jack Wetney at the recent Australian National State Competitions in Gold Coast Australia and had face to face interview with them. Below are the extracts from this interview.
Generally how do you like this scholarship opportunity?
Elliot: - Man! This is very, very exciting and we are so lucky to be recipients of this (very emotional about it).
Jack: - I am speechless when thinking about this opportunity. I just don’t have the words to describe how I feel.
How is your stay like and who are the people you stayed with?
Mainly we stayed with Pastor Brian Codrington and family. We spent about a month each with a few host families. They are mainly from Dural Baptist Church congregation. Some other families invited us on various occasions.
How do you find the lifestyle including dressing, food and general behaviour?
Every activity is well set according to their time schedule. Their movements too are very fast. The food is good. Many food types are new to our appetite but we are enjoying the taste and now you can see for yourself that we are growing. (Both laughed with raised shoulders and open arms with a quick glimpse around their body).
What do you find special and different to school back home?
Here we must dress up very neatly with neckties and coat. We are well fed before transported to school each day. All our schooling needs are met. There are a lot of students and all speak English. It was not easy at first but we have settled in well now. We received a lot of encouragement from our schoolmates through our involvement in sports.
How are you finding your class work?
Actually it was not that easy at first. Apart from some normal subjects we tried German language but could not continue with it. However, we are so privileged to have a tutor who assists us in our schooling. We are doing fine and excited about our exam results.
Elliot: - My best moment at school is when I got excellent for my assignment on ‘how futsal impacted our nation Solomon Islands’. It was also read to other audiences in NSW and I was so thrilled about it.
How about your education for this year 2006?
This year we are in Year 9…
Jack Wetney: - I will be doing Food Technology and Wood Work while…
Elliot Ragomo: - I will study IT (Information Technology) and Commerce.
What are some of your highlights in sports?
Both of us are in our high school first eleven (11) soccer team that won the inter school competition- William Clarke College soccer team and also in the starting line up for our high school class soccer team called ‘Robinson’ that won the internal school competition. Besides we also play 6 – a – side soccer, touch rugby, touch footy, netball, basketball and baseball.
We played in youth level in Futsal and soccer. Our participation has attracted our school principal to come and watch our matches for the school competitions.
What futsal teams do you play with and at what level?
We both are playing for our ‘Dural Warriors’ futsal team in the premier league level and still winning…
Jack Wetney: - I prefer playing in the Under 19 sides which is more youthful and good for me.
How do you find playing futsal in Australia?
We love the experience and playing against big and tough opponents. These experiences have given us some push in our skill level and really do enhance our performances. The club we are playing with provide all our training equipment. Players are well supported which motivates us to play futsal.
We understand that Dural Sport and Leisure Centre is preparing to send both of you to Europe with a touring Dural Futsal team especially to Italy and Spain?
At this stage we are hopeful that our fundraising efforts by our Dural friends are successful. Good to learn that some Solomon Islanders around NSW have given in some financial support.
How do you find your futsal training and preparations for this tour?
Our coaches Rob Varela and Tony Chan are putting us on very hard training schedule and making sure that we do train hard and to do better on this trip?
What can you say for the young futsal players in Solomon Islands?
To have a positive attitude towards their training, be disciplined and play to the rules. Secondly, they must give their best to their education - ensure they balance things of.
We believe that all qualities needed for very well nurtured players are emphasised in our futsal development back home.
What can you say about your performance at the recent tournament?
We did pretty well for our team. It was entertaining for both of us to play together with some of these very skilful NSW futsal players. Basically we were displaying what we trained to do and finding the hard game situation easy to overcome and most of all fun to play.
Our Solomon 14-year-old boys’ team were also very entertaining to watch and were certainly good ambassadors.
Futsal World Cup is coming up in 2008 and we are developing ourselves and looking at some chances to compete in Oceania level with the hope to enter a World Cup Challenge. What do you two think of this idea?
We think our chances are high by what we ourselves are experiencing and seeing the young futsal players back in Solomons do. Together we are now growing up in our futsal knowledge and by our performances, we believe our chances are very high to represent OFC.
How are you getting on with your spiritual growth and Church involvement?
We are attending Dural Baptist Church where our main host and supporters are going to regularly. People are supportive and families invited us to their homes. During Christmas we received gifts from families. We can experience the love and care from Christians here that we know God cares. We took part in some youth programmes and kids activities at church.
Any other wish or thoughts or any thing else you want to say?
We are positive about our chance to travel with the Dural team to Italy and Spain and hope to perform to our best.
We also feel positive to play for our country Solomon Islands in the first Futsal World Cup in 2008. Our target now is to beat New Zealand in the qualifying competition.
We would like all young futsal players to keep training hard and to develop and maintain good habits like respecting referees and play skilfully. By displaying good habits we have experienced that spectators love to come and watch you play.
Thank you for sharing your experience. It seems you two are excited and enjoying your stay. May we wish you God’s blessings and all the best in your schooling and futsal dreams. Looking forward to lead our nation in the up coming Futsal WC qualifiers in 2008.
Thank you for making this chance for us to relay something back to our country. Again, thank you for all the initiatives to take us this far. And Dural Sport and Leisure Centre is awesome. Once again thank you!



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