Girls field opportunities with soccer

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Bureau

When Anne Kawamata was a freshman last year, she and her teammates on the Kaimuki High School junior varsity team didn't win a game and never scored a goal. But the team gave Kawamata something she might not have had otherwise — opportunity.

Playing junior varsity soccer has helped enrich high school life for young women like Mary Suguitar, 16, left, Anne Kawamata, 14, and Meossa Naula, 16. Kyle Sackowski • The Honolulu Advertiser

"Sports at school should be the carrot," to get good grades, said Dennis Sanders, Mililani junior varsity girls soccer coach. "Women need sports just as much as men. It's an outlet."

Soccer is immensely popular among young people — about 23,000 children ages 4 1/2 to 18 played organized soccer in Hawai'i last year, of which about 42 percent were girls, said Mark Stewart, state director of the American Youth Soccer Organization. Participation drops off dramatically from ages 14 to 16, Stewart said.

Nationwide, an estimated 8 million girls play soccer.

This year, Hawai'i played host to the Hawai'i Cup tournament in Kahului, Maui. Next year, the state will play host to the youth soccer organization's national games at the Waipi'o Soccer Complex, where 200 teams will compete, Stewart said.

"AYSO is not much different than any other youth organization," Stewart said. "Participation is high at the younger ages and drops off as the kids get older. Typically kids find other interests or go off in different directions."

The American Youth Soccer Organization is considered a good training ground for high school soccer because it's an open league. Anyone who signs up gets to play, whereas some leagues are invitation only.

The success of soccer prompted the Department of Education to add girls junior varsity soccer to its roster of team sports, said Ray Fujino, athletic director for Kaimuki High School and state coordinator for girls and boys with the O'ahu Interscholastic Association.

Of the 14 schools that signed up for soccer last year, three dropped out — Kalani, Wai'anae and Castle high schools — because there wasn't enough participation. This year every O'ahu high school except for Wai'anae and Waialua is participating, Fujino said.

The impetus for adding more sports programs for girls also can be attributed to Title IX, the 1972 federal law that mandates that states receiving federal money provide equal opportunity to boys and girls. Like other states, Hawai'i has been striving for 50-50 participation and even though it has added a sport for girls almost every year, it has a long way to go to catch up, said Dwight Toyama, state Department of Education athletic administrator.

Last school year, more than 20,000 girls were able to participate in sports. That's about 7,000 more than in the 1975-76 school year. However, the number of schools with athletic programs for girls grew by only five in the same period, according to statistics from the Department of Education.

Many soccer enthusiasts such as Kaimuki High junior varsity player Meossa Naula are looking forward to practice and a new season. Kyle Sackowski • The Honolulu Advertiser

Participating in sports helps teach girls how to work as a team and how to deal with different personalities, said Ben Lane, a parent of 6-year-old Christie Lane, who is about to start her third season in the American Youth Soccer Organization. Lane said he wanted his daughter to experience a variety of sports so that when she gets older she can make her own choices.

"If she's never tried a sport, she won't know if she will like it," Lane said. "The AYSO approach is ideal, and it allows everyone to play. Competition is good and it's bad. But the kids need to know that they are not going to always win and that they need to try their best."

Jonna Wickesser also wanted her daughter to experience a team sport and learn the value of physical fitness at an early age.

"We wanted her to have an exercise ethic," Wickesser said. "It will be easier for her to keep herself physically fit if she starts at a young age. It will be second nature."

At Kaimuki, many of the junior varsity girls had little or no experience, Fujino said. Unlike Mililani or Leeward O'ahu, where soccer is the sport of choice among kids, the freshmen and sophomores with experience coming to Kaimuki got on the varsity team, he said.

Had there not been a junior varsity team, Anne Kawamata would have tried out for the varsity team. Maybe she would have made it. Maybe not. But playing on the junior varsity team was a big plus, she said.

"Playing sports in high school is fun," Kawamata said. "We did better than the varsity. We weren't that good. We didn't win a game, and we never scored. But we had a lot of communication between teammates and the coaches."

Teammate Meossa Naula said she learned a lot from her junior varsity experience. She said that now she's going to try out for varsity in late October. She's ready to compete with the older girls because she has the experience of a season behind her.

"It was just so fun," Naula said. "You get more experience and you get to play."

Mililani, the O'ahu junior varsity champions, had more girls trying out for a position on the varsity team than slots. That gave the junior varsity team a good pool of experienced players. This year should be better.

"We see junior varsity as the future varsity team," said Dennis Sanders, a Mililani High School junior varsity girls soccer coach. "We treat junior varsity as star athletes. If you can't play, you can't learn. There's nothing that beats game experience."

You can reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 395-8831.