While the blog may have taken a vacation the past few months, SWB Nicaragua has done anything but. I'll save my longwindedness for later; here's a quick update:
1) Saturday clinics continued through the month of November and ranged in numbers from 15 to 60 on any given week. Samari and Kenyi proved to be the most committed coaches of the group, and Samari has told us she will use her coaching money to pay for the costs of her graduation from high school this year. Congrats to Samari!
2) The Real Sultana team made the playoffs and will look to improve on their sixth place finish in 2009.
3) The 2nd annual T.E.A.M. (Trabajando en Equipo Aprendemos Mas- Working in a Team we Learn More) Camp and Coaches Clinic dates are set for March 9-13 and 16-20. More than 10 volunteers have committed already, and we are excited to once again have representatives from several US Colleges as camp staff.
4) Three Dartmouth Women's Soccer players have received a grant from the Dickey Center for International Understanding to spend their winter term in Granada as Girls Project Interns. Myra, Becky, and Hubs will be in Granada from Jan 9-March 16 working to further these projects and work toward the goals of a girls youth league, premier team sponsorships, and a Granada club with clubhouse/youth center. Their Spanish skills already surpass the shameful tidbits that Molly and I had in our arsenal a year ago, and we are excited to hear more about their adventures through this blog.
5) Mary, Molly, and Hubs were trained by Girls for a Change (www.girlsforachange.org) and are excited to see how their curriculum could be implemented in Granada.
In other news, Mary, Ann, Dani, and Ben will head to Granada after the New Year to set up some logistics for the interns and evaluate the next step in moving our goals forward. What that means is....cleat draft part 2! After using Dani's apartment as a storage facility for the last year, we managed to pack up almost 500 lbs of equipment to bring to Granada this January. With over 200 pairs of cleats to choose from, we laid them all out and one by one "drafted them" to their respective bags. Nearly every pair was selected for a bag, but we each had our favorites, including the coral colored Pumas (Mary), sparkly pink Mitres (Molly), and of course Dani the forward choose the bright white cleats. Bold statement. Special thanks to everyone who contributed to this massive equipment pile, in particular the Ramsey Soccer Club for their repeat generosity and Erin Hatley for her incredible soccer ball collection!
Check back often for updates as we are getting things up and running from the homefront and will also post as more adventures unfold!
