Females impress at ExxonMobil Under-14

As the female division of the ExxonMobil/Petra Schools’ Under-14 tournament got under way, the expectations of many were low, given that many of the young ladies did not have previous exposure to a competitive platform in the sport of football.
However, the eight teams showed up and showed out on Saturday, to prove that they are just as good as their male counterparts.
The day’s activities started slowly with a walkover handed to Tucville Secondary. It was then a battle of defensive play when New Campbellville Secondary and South Ruimveldt Secondary met. Both teams went back and forth with several commendable attempts on the part of the young ladies; nevertheless, when the allotted time was up, the score remained 0-0.
East Ruimveldt Secondary later cruised to a 2-nil victory over Uitvlugt Secondary, but one of the best performances of the tournament came from the Charlestown team. Although it was just a one-nil victory, Charlestown exhibited an impressive team effort of defensive and attacking play.
Guyana Times Sport caught up with Charlestown’s public relations personnel, Choella George, who shared a bit of insight on the creation of their female under-14 team. She even disclosed that the team had a head-start on their training. “We actually would have started training at the beginning of the year, not pertaining to the competition but just that we’re trying to develop sports in Charlestown, and what really happens, you would find most of the boys interested in sports, so we’re trying to arouse the girl’s interests,” George said.
Admitting that some of the girls were already familiar with the sport from the Under 11(pee-wee) level, George noted that Charlestown’s focus was on improvement of skill and development.
“We would have worked in all the areas, refreshing the memory and developing the skills and making it known to the others who weren’t so familiar with the sport. Everybody is interested in football, but to actually play it, it’s a different area, a different understanding.”
Going forward, the Charlestown team have already identified some aspects of their game that can be improved, but they are still confident that they can come out victorious.
“Their performance did reflect well on their training; there are small areas that we need to work on and we’ll do that for the next game,” George stated.