The tyranny of distance will be testing the CIFA U20 Women’s perseverance and discipline as they are unable to train in one place. The Cook Islands consists of 15 islands scattered over 2-million square kilometers of ocean and to organise a full squad in any sport, in one location, would mean the decentralisation of its training programmes.
Despite the distances between them, these training squad members are setting their eyes on the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Germany next year as a goal “to motivate them to work hard as footballers”.
Fourteen players are under the watchful eyes of the Head Coach Jimmy Katoa at the CIFA Sports Academy in Rarotonga. Katoa is also CIFA’s Development Officer and is being assisted by Michelle Paiti and Team Manager John Taripo in his U20s preparations.
Nearly an hour away by plane from Rarotonga airport is the island of Aitutaki, where five other members of the training squad have their own training guided by a local football coach appointed by the Aitutaki Football Association. Another three players are training hard in Auckland together also.
The training programmes are the same for all squad members and have been specially designed by Mr Katoa and CIFA’s Technical Director Maurice Tillotson.
So trust, commitment and perseverance are the key fundamentals of this training squad.
“This is the reality here. We are many islands divided by sea so it will never be easy to bring all our players together just to train because they have their school and work to attend so we cannot shift them out easy,” said coach Katoa.
“We have to design our training programmes so that they can continue their school work. I cannot be there to watch over them all the time so there is that trust, between me, as their coach, and them, as my players, that we will be committed to me, the game, and following the programmes.
“But we will always have someone guiding them in their training.”
In August Mr Katoa and Mr Tillotson will travel to Aitutaki to assess players progress and narrow down who their final team members will be.
Mr Katoa says that he will trim the training squad to around 14 players and the full squad will assemble in Auckland in October before the OFC qualifiers.
Courtesy of CIFA Media.