KUCHING: Sarawak U-17 team were rewarded for reaching the quarter-finals of the KPM-FAM Youth Football tournament this year by Conelli Sports, a local sports apparel retailer here, which agreed to sponsor their training attire.
Leslie (third right) handing over one of the sponsored items to Rashid (centre) at the SMK Tabuan Jaya principle’s office yesterday. Also seen are Helearn (left) and Ahmad (second right) as others looks on.
Conelli Sports executive director Lesley Lau met with school officials at their office to hand over the sponsored items at a simple ceremony held at the SMK Tabuan Jaya yesterday.
Also present during the ceremony were the school’s two assistant principals, Chang Sig and Abdul Rashid Sabang.
SMK Tabuan Jaya which has a mini stadium in the school compound is the state team’s home ground venue and all of the state youth players are also currently studying at the school.
According to the team’s assistant head coach, Helearn Wilford, the players deserved to be rewarded for their fine efforts in the competition.
“We are enjoying one of our best seasons this year. With the reward, we hope that the players will get even more motivated to play ,” he added.
For their next match, the Sarawak U-17 team will face Pahang this weekend but Helearn revealed that there was no pressure on the team as Sarawak was already confirmed of a top four finish in the competition.
Sarawak U-17 now only have one more match to play in the group stages.
Divided into two groups this year namely Super League and Premier League, top four teams from each group will qualify to the quarter-finals berth.
Pitted in the Super League group, the Sarawak U-17 team are currently being coached by Ahmad Nurfaizal Patrick.
The annual competition is jointly organised by Ministry of Education (KPM) and Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) for two age groups, namely the U-14 and U-17.