But while the noise around football grows, the sporting focus of the Marshall Islands is firmly on the 2023 Micronesian Games, set to be held on Majuro in July 2023. It’s going to be the biggest-ever sporting event held in that part of the world: the likes of Guam, Palau, the Northern Mariana Islands, Pohnpei, Yap, Nauru and Chuuk will all travel to Majuro to compete for local bragging rights in a mini Olympic Games. It’ll be the first major event held at the new 2,000-capacity Majuro Track and Field Stadium. The MISF did look optimistically at including football in the Games, but the sheer logistics meant it had come just too soon, with all the hotels already booked.
Once the Micronesian Games are over, the MISF and the Marshall Islands National Olympic Committee will turn attention to football. The area already has a proud sporting history, having featured at the past four summer Olympic Games across athletics, taekwondo, swimming and weightlifting.
Owers has been looking for players. Once news of appointment started circulating on Twitter, he was contacted by three players — including one college prospect in the U.S. — with Marshallese ancestry. But without a national team or any structured league, it’s tough to track down potential prospects.
“I originally wanted us to get a team together by the back end of this year, but I don’t think that’ll happen now,” Owers says. “I think realistically, if we can look at like spring next year as a first opportunity to really play competitively, that’d be great.
“There are a lot of Marshallese people in the U.S., so we’re currently trying to connect with people there to raise awareness to the program, the project, and get people playing it. Because long term, you know, it might be that we have a pool of players that are U.S.-based that come together, then a pool of players that come together in the Marshall Islands. We can merge the two, almost like in the documentary “Next Goal Wins” — that’s how America Samoa did it.”
