Cebuanos in futsal team

This story appeared on Sun.Star Cebu on June 21
TWO Cebuanos made it to the National Futsal Team that will face other neighboring countries in the upcoming Southeast Asian Games (SEAG).

Honey Mae Thomason and Binky Estrada are among the 15 players picked from the 30 hopefuls who tried out last March. Most players of the team are from Manila, and some are from Masbate and Bacolod.



It will be the first SEA Games appearance for the two. Thomason joined the national team last year and wasn�t able to play in the 2009 SEAG, where the team won a bronze medal, the highest achievement for a football team.

Both started playing the Bro. Mari Aberasturi of Don Bosco College.

Unlike football, Futsal uses a smaller but heavier ball that has less bounce than a regular football.

�Mas paspas, mas dali makascore and mas less contact compared sa football na grabe ang binirihay,� Thomason said.

Thomason hopes to help promote the sport to Cebuanos and is looking forward to a one-day tournament in Cebu on Aug. 27 that will be organized by the Philippine Futsal League through Fil- Iranian coach Esmaeil Sedigh.

�I think the one-day tournament here can help promote the sport,� said Thomason, who is one of the starters of the team.

The coach will also be scouting for players for the team.

Thomason, 21, is a fresh graduate of Entrepreneurial Management from Rizal Techonological University on full athletic scholarship.

Thomason helped RTU win back to back championships in the Women�s National Collegiate Athletic Association and was named the MVP in 2007 and 2010.

Recently she and Estrada were part of the team that represented the National Capital Region in the Futsal tournament of the Philippine National Games, where they got the gold.

Thomason will fly to Manila today to attend the trainings of the national team that started last week.