4th Smalta/Ministry of Public Health Girls Pee wee tournament launched

Nov 15, 2017 Sports, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...tournament-launched/

“Women football as important as men” – Co-director of Petra, Troy Mendonca

The fourth annual 11-years and under Pee wee football tournament for Primary school girls, being sponsored by the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) and Ansa Mcal through their Smalta brand was launched yesterday at the National Library. The simple but significant ceremony had in attendance students, teachers, representatives of the sponsors, the Ministry of Education and Petra, the organisers of the grassroots tournament.

This year will see 12 schools battling in four groups of three with the top two teams of each group moving onto the quarter-finals. All games will be played at the National Insurance Scheme ground on CARIFESTA Avenue, after the usual venue, the Ministry of Education ground is seeing its pavilion being reconstructed.
Co-director of Petra, Troy Mendonca, called for all stakeholders to treat the girls’ pee wee with the same importance and hype as the just concluded boys’ tournament which was very successful. “We all know that physical education go hand in hand in making well rounded students and we’re happy to introduce this tournament to help foster that,” Mendonca stated during his address.
Rawlston Adams, 2nd vice-president of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) posited during the launch that, “The GFF is happy to endorse this venture because its inline with their mandate of development of the game at the grassroots level and equally important, women’s football.”
Dr. Oneka Scott representing the MOPH confidently announced that, “This (tournament) it’s not a platform for sports alone but it’s a platform for living a healthy life as well,” as she listed the many benefits of exercise.
“I’m happy to say that we will continue to support football and in this instance youth football and I would like to wish the young ladies good luck as they go out not just to compete but have fun,” non-alcoholic brand manager of title sponsors Ansa Mcal, Sean Abel stated in his remarks.
Head of the Physical Education department in the Ministry of Education, Nicholas Fraser, shared his view on having tournaments as good in that, “It helps to evaluate how the various schools’ Physical Education programmes are progressing.”
The tournament gets underway Saturday at the NIS ground with six games.