Though they lost three games and tied one, playing four games in four days, a Kaua‘i American Youth Soccer Organization squad, the Kaua‘i Extreme Strikers, still came home from the AYSO Kirk Banks Tournament on O‘ahu as winners. They not
Though they lost three games and tied one, playing four games in four days, a Kaua‘i American Youth Soccer Organization squad, the Kaua‘i Extreme Strikers, still came home from the AYSO Kirk Banks Tournament on O‘ahu as winners.
They not only won sportsmanship medals, but received the maximum number of sportsmanship points available, 100 (maximum 25 per game), said coach Donna Palmer in an e-mail and telephone interview.
The tournament is based on sportsmanship, and in the under-10 girls’ division, wins, losses, ties, goals scored and goals allowed, don’t figure into the sportsmanship criteria, she explained.
The team, coaches and spectators have to have good behavior, and while Palmer obviously coaches the players, she also did some coaching for the parents and other spectators, passing out sheets of paper that included the 80 positive things to say while watching soccer, including, of course, “Way to go,” she said.
“We would like to thank Kauai Kookie Kompany, Starbucks, Cost-U-Less, and AYSO for their support,” she said. “ We had a great time, and it was a wonderful experience for the team.”
Team members were Jessica Palmer, Raven Ochoa, Nevaeh Arruda-Kapu, Vanessa Rubel, Frankie Kay, Sara Morimoto, Cambria Ort, Rebecca Stevens, Natalie Devin, and Emily Johnson.
The tournament, played at the Waipi‘o Peninsula Soccer Complex, included three other Kaua‘i girls’ teams, Palmer said.
