New Appointment: Children's Home Directors

As most of you know, the "connecting faith and football" program is only one part of a larger project going on in Azacualpa. Our football program is one of many outreach programs taking place at the Children's Orphanage. Over the last few months, there are been some exciting developments that we believe will have a big impact on the Children's home, the local community, and the outreach football program. The main news is that Dagoberto and Dilia Zelaya have recently accepted the position of program Director. Both Dago and Dilia bring a tremendous amount of energy and experience to the children's home and, more importantly, they have a deep rooted desire to help the people of Azacualpa. From a football perspective, Dago shares a love for the beautiful game and believes that we can use football as means to help the young children and families of Azacualpa. We are very much excited about this new appointment.

What a goal!

What a goal! Click here to see the first official goal of league play. There was some excellent build up play, off of a throw-in, which ended with an excellent finish into the far corner of the goal. You can tell by the celebrations that the kids are having a blast. It was a tightly contested match, played in a joyful spirit. The kids were overjoyed at being able to pull on a uniform and play in a semi-organized match. You can see from the smile son the kid’s faces that they are enjoying themselves.

Great save!

Here is some action form our first official league game. Some great build up play leading to an excellent shot and save. The kids are having a great time!

Youth Teams Added!

Now that we have the field in place, we have started providing daily opportunities for local children to come and play. The program is directed by Alex (youth teams) and Manuel (Adult teams) both of whom are local leaders. For the children's football program we have, on average, around 20-25 kids who participate each day (most of them regulars). From this core group, we have established two new youth teams (as illustrated in the Iowa and Minnesota jerseys). The players arrive each day around 3pm and are provided with equipment (uniform and football boots) so that they can participate in the daily practice (which consists of mainly scrimmage games). Each day we see a new face as the word spreads throughout the community about the program. Our goal is to work towards having 5-6 teams and developing a local community football league.

Goals: In with the new!

We achieved one of our targets today by completing the goals. As you can see the new goals look great, especially with the nets that we had donated from PVEO Sports. The Kids love them. Let them games begin!

Goals: Out with the old

As we look at the field development project, one of the main (short-term) tasks that we hope to accomplish over the next few days, is to design a safe field that will be used as a center for the local community kids to play and develop. One of our main challenges has been removing the old goals (illustrated) and replace them with some new and safer goals.

Game - CFAF Vrs La Peurta (Azacualpa)

Everyone has arrived safely in Honduras for our January mission. We got the ball rolling and have another official match organized for our youth adult community team. Our opposition was a local team from Azacualpa (called La Puerta). They displayed a mixture of their top team and second team. It was a tightly contested match for the first 55 minutes (1-2 at half time), but as the game progressed into the later stages the local oppositions fitness levels allowed then to take control. The game finished 6-3. A fun and competitive match. Here we are pictured wearing the Iowa Soccer Association jerseys.