The Kaua‘i Extreme Strikers felt like winners, Saturday. Coached by Donna Palmer, the Strikers finished as finalists in the Girls Under 12 division, Kaua‘i Soccer Association spring league, dropping to the top-seeded Kaua‘i Sparks in the finals. “We are the
The Kaua‘i Extreme Strikers felt like winners, Saturday.
Coached by Donna Palmer, the Strikers finished as finalists in the Girls Under 12 division, Kaua‘i Soccer Association spring league, dropping to the top-seeded Kaua‘i Sparks in the finals.
“We are the young Under 12 team, seeded No. 3, and we made an upset when we beat the second-seeded Kilauea team, May 14 in shootouts,” Palmer said in an email. “We took on the Sparks, Saturday, for the division championship and lost. This places the Strikers as second in the Under 12 Girls division, but the team felt like winners.”
Palmer said the Strikers were one of two of the younger Under 12 teams and to be able to work up to the championships and finish as a finalist was a huge accomplishment for the team.
“We went to a tournament in March where our goalkeeper broke her clavicle and was out for the remainder of the season,” Palmer said. “But the team always played the games for her because if we made it to the May 21 Championships, she would be physically able to play again.”
During the time the goalie was absent, Palmer said she always came to practice, listening and participating as best as she was able to.
“That showed determination and a love for the game and her teammates,” she said.
Saturday, the goalie returned to the field, but not as the goalkeeper, Palmer said. That meant a great deal, not only to the recovering goalkeeper, but to the team.
“I have the philosophy that as long as we do our best, we are winners, to keep on going, never giving up and holding our heads high,” Palmer said. “That philosophy prevailed this past weekend when following the game, the Strikers were cheerful and good sports — going so far as to make a tunnel for the winning team to run under.”
With the KSA season complete, the Kaua‘i Extreme Strikers head to Maui for a tournament in June where the goalkeeper will be able to take the goalie box she has been missing for the past several weeks.
