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Belize National Women Team

SportsBelize National Women Team

Belize National Women Team wins friendly vs Quintana Roo champs in Chetumal

A release this afternoon from the Football Federation of Belize (FFB) said that our Belize National “A” Women team had won “a friendly match against the Pumitas Chetumal on Sunday, April 27, in Chetumal. The team won 2 goals to 1. Kursha Pollard and Corby Rhaburn scored the two goals for Belize in the first half of the match.”

According to Mose Hyde, who is the new FFB appointed Chairman of the National Team Committee, there were some financial hurdles to overcome in trying to make the trip a reality. The FFB has a very limited budget, but his committee felt that the trip was important for the Women Team, who are scheduled to participate in UNCAF Qualifiers in Guatemala next month, May 19-25, for the Women CONCACAF Gold Cup to be held later in Cancun, Mexico. Their perseverance paid off at the ninth hour, as a couple private sponsors – Douglas Thompson of Black Orchid Resort and Yoni Rosado of Cave Tubing Dot Com – stepped forward to help make the endeavor possible.

Mose told our sports desk this afternoon that it has been a bumpy ride trying to get the best possible situation for our women to perform to their full potential, and limited finances is not the only difficulty. Many of the girls are either students or employed, and, although this is a National Team effort, getting time off for training has not been easy. So far, the team has been training on weekends under coach Kent Gabourel with assistance from FFB Technical Director, Renan Couoh. The team manager is Mrs. Carol Palma. Other new faces on the National Team Committee are Irvin Perez and Elmer Torres. Onan McClean and William Moguel are also long time members of the committee.

The victory, although in a friendly, has caused some attention, because Pumitas is reportedly the Quintana Roo champs, and have already requested a return match with our National Team.
In addition, coach Kent Gabourel told us tonight that our team has been invited to a “Mundo Maya” tournament next weekend at Playa Del Carmen, where 6 other teams, 1 from as far north as Vera Cruz, will be participating. “Our team would be playing every day for 3 days, and that would help us to rotate our roster and give full game performances to all our players. This would help tremendously in our preparation for the UNCAF qualifiers, when we will be playing every other day,” said coach Gabourel.

To fulfill those dreams, “We need more sponsorship,” said Mose, “and our committee is determined to manage the national team finances separately from the FFB general accounts, so we can give a full account of our stewardship to the sponsors and the public as well as to the FFB.”

Could it be that our Women National Team is poised to accomplish a similar feat to our Men National Team by qualifying to the CONCACAF Gold Cup? Go, Belize!

(Ed. Note: The former FFB National Team Committee financial report is reportedly in limbo, since it was personally controlled by then FFB Vice President, Rawel Pelayo, who remains detained, since July of last year, by D.E.A. authorities in the U.S.)

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