By Laura Nott
Congratulations to our first-ever league champions, Fonds-Parisien! The team pulled out a win against Ti Goave in the championship match of the PLH National Christian Soccer League. After a 1-1 score, the game ended in a penalty shootout. A nice save and a missed shot clinched the win for Fonds-Parisien and the crowd rushed the field.
Watching the game, I was reminded once again how beloved soccer is in this country and how great an opportunity sports are for reaching youth and training up leaders!
As I listened to the committee members’ speeches during the award ceremony, they referred multiple times to the "movement". This league is not just about the game of soccer. It is about creating a movement. In this movement, we see communities coming together to support their youth. We see positive environments for play and growth. We see youth being trained up as servant leaders. And we see the gospel being shared.
Before the event, the league coaches, committee, and PLH staff enjoyed a meal together to celebrate the close of a great season. Pictured above are the head coaches of Fonds-Parisien and Ti Goave.
Next month, we will hold our third annual soccer coaches clinic. This clinic includes training in Coerver coaching techniques and servant leadership. In April, we will launch our youth soccer league. We are so excited to see more and more people come together to join this movement and empower the Haitian youth to bring about a stronger Haiti.
We want to say thank you to Destiny Village and Steve and Lynn Petrosino for providing the league with practice socks for all 608 players! We have recruited coaches and the teams are starting to form. We can’t wait for the first games in April!