New Erima field 8 sides as comp gains traction

By ISAAC LIRI

MANY young footballers gathered at Bisini on Saturday for round one of the Port Moresby Schools Soccer competition.
Among the schools was New Erima Primary who have eight teams taking part in the U12, U14, U16 and U18 boys and girls divisions.
New Erima Primary School coach Angelius Kari was a very busy man organising the teams to ensure their participation.
Grade five teacher Kari is not in charge of sports at the school but his passion to see kids play football has got him hooked on the sidelines at Bisini.
“A lot of these students also take part in Papua New Guinea Football Association’s Just Play programme,” Kari said
“That is how they got engaged in football and because they had so much interest, we decided to come up with teams to take part in this competition.
“The Just Play programme visits the school on a regular basis and it had developed the interest of the kids to play football, enhance their skills in the game and also become better citizens of the community.
“Now that we are participating in the competition at Bisini, our main aim is to produce good soccer players for the future.
“We want to be part of this because if we can teach them when they’re young, it will help when they grow up.
“At this level, they tend to listen and they need guidance so I think Schools Football Association Port Moresby is doing the right thing using football as a means to a better future.”
National Soccer League coach Margaret Aka of the Southern Strikers was also keeping an eye on young talent at the competition.