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Just For Kicks
THE American Youth Soccer Organization's Rainbow Tournament, June 29-July 4, will get bigger now that 18 fields are available at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex. Rainbow
Tournament
to expand"The idea is to expand the tournament to have an International Invitational with teams from Oceania and Asia in the under-19 age group," said AYSO president Max Sword.
"We'll start there and see how that goes. We're leading up to 2002 when we want to host the AYSO National Games."
AYSO recently received a $15,000 grant from the Hawaii Tourism Authority to help develop and market the Rainbow Tournament in Oceania and Asia with a target of 200 teams in five years.
In past years, AYSO has limited the number of teams to 120 while using nine fields at Kapiolani Park.
Morning matches were rare so visiting teams could play tourist and to accommodate local players in summer or year-round school situations.
There was very little advertising done on the mainland, but that has changed.
"Besides working with mainland travel agents, we sent a representative to the big California AYSO meetings where we had a booth with all the information," Sword said.
Using feedback provided by travel agents, Sword said last year's Rainbow Tournament generated a little more than $1.5 million in air fares and hotels costs alone.
"That doesn't include the food or souvenirs they bought, the cars they rented or the attractions they attended here," Sword said.
The bid to host the 2002 national games will be submitted in January and a decision should be made by May.
Sword said Bakersfield, Calif. and Albuquerque, N.M., officials decided not to bid once they learned of Hawaii's intent to bid.
Jamie Sato (Kailua), a senior midfielder with two goals in 2000, makes her second consecutive trip to the NCAA Division III soccer playoffs with Puget Sound University (15-1-1). The Loggers play Chapman College (16-4-1) in a first-round match Saturday at Salem, Oregon.
Megan Inouye (Mililani) and Momi Markus (Iolani) will be key players for the University of Northern Colorado when the No. 2 seeded Bears (13-4-0) compete in the North Central Conference tournament this weekend.
Inouye, a senior defender, has played a major role in limiting opponents to just 11 goals in 17 matches.
She also was named to the Academic All-NCC team last week. Inouye maintains a 3.41 grade-point average while majoring in journalism/speech communications.
Markus, a freshman striker who redshirted in 1999 after knee surgery, has come off the bench to play in 15 matches. She has scored seven goals and assisted on three others.
Streisand Reverio (St. Francis) has played in 14 matches as a reserve. The junior midfielder has one goal and one assist for the NCAA Division II Bears.
Seniors Angela Ichinose (Iolani) and Jaret Asuncion (Kamehameha) play their final home matches for Loyola Marymount University this weekend.
Asuncion, a midfielder, has started 44 of 64 matches during his four years with the Lions. He has 14 career points.
In Ichinose's four years, the Lions have a 47-24-5 record, the most successful run in LMU women's soccer history.
A striker, Ichinose leads the Lions with four goals and two assists this year and has 27 career points
Asuncion is a business/marketing major while Ichinose is majoring in business administration.
