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local Thursday 11 augusT 2022

Milvienne Henriquez, coach of female U15 team:

“Many other coaches didn’t consider Aruba as competition”

Monday afternoon a cel- among other problems,
ebration took place in and thus Aruba was moved
honor of the female U15 to the B-league, with coun-
soccer team who repre- tries like Nicaragua and
sented Aruba in the 2022 Honduras, which are big
Concacaf Girls Under 15 teams.
Championship, in Tampa,
Florida and came out as “What was good is that the
sub-champion. Our re- kids were well prepared
porter caught up with the and put up a good fight. It
team’s head coach, Milvi- was a challenge, but surely
enne Henriquez, who told you can see our soccer is
us how the preparation for on a high level and deserv-
the team went, and what edly we fell into the league
their experience was dur- in which we belonged
ing the championship. from the start. And what
is great about this is that
Henriquez says that the pre- many coaches, for exam-
sentation went sublime. The ple those of Honduras and
team is part of a program Nicaragua, didn’t consider
of AVB (Aruba Football As- Aruba as competition. To
sociation) called Acad- their surprise that was not
emies, and from the acad- the case, and we received
emy a selection is made to a lot of compliments from
form the team. These play- them”, Henriquez added.
ers train the whole year four
times per week, the kids Regarding what’s next
have no rest. for this team, Henriquez
indicated that first they
Last year, this same team will take a much needed
represented Aruba in the break. The academies con-
Dominican Republic in tinue, the programs of AVB
the CFU Challenge Series continue and there will be
championship, where they a new U14 team, which will
were crowned winners. Re- be formed again for CFU.
garding the difference be- Henriquez mentioned that
tween CFU and Concacaf there will be another U17
Girls U15, coach Henriquez competition next year or
explained that CFU is a de- in two years, which means
velopment competition un- another day’s rest, until same hours to see if the kids caf selects these leagues the kids will continue their
der Concacaf. preparation and make sure
She added that this is the they reached the final. could handle the intensity based on the U17 ranking, they are in top form, be-
But Henriquez highlights and so that they would be and Aruba had only par-
first time this team is com- cause U17 is ranked and
peting together, and they that during their one-year mentally prepared for the ticipated once in the U17, that means it is a stronger
meaning they were lower.
preparation, when they sun as well.
wrote history as the first competition.
U14 team winning the found out the schedule But to their surprise, coach
that the Aruba team was In the beginning, Aruba Henriquez says, two days
championship. From there, On the subject of soccer,
Henriquez says, the team playing and the season in was in the C-league, the before they travelled, a lot the male U14 team was also
of the small islands were no
which they would travel to lowest league for the Carib-
trained a whole year dur- present at the celebration,
ing which they had friendly the U.S., they began train- bean islands. Coach Hen- longer able to participat- and Erick Santos, technical
ing here on Aruba in the riquez explains that Conca-
ed because of visa issues,
games of a higher level of staff member, announced
competition, among oth- that this team will depart
ers, against the Curaçao tomorrow to represent Aru-
U17 team. “The preparation ba in the CFU tournament
was a lot more intense, and in the Dominican Republic.
the experience they have “It is a tournament in which
already, so they are better we will definitely give our
prepared”, Henriquez said. all. There will be four games
in one week, where we will
Coach Henriquez com- play against teams like St.
mented that of the different Kitts, Jamaica and Haiti.
aspects during the champi- The preparations have
onship in Tampa, the most been going on for a long
difficult for the team was time already and we have
the sun, the heat, the lack no doubts in this team, and
of wind, and the schedule. we hope to be able to bring
The team had two games this trophy to Aruba and to
back-to-back, then a day’s celebrate with the Aruban
rest, then two more games community as well”, Santos
back-to-back, and then said.q