The Vaitele-Uta ward’s boys and girls teams reigned supreme at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Back-To-School cricket competition on Saturday at the Tuanaimato cricket field.

The girl's team captain, Caroline Tusiga, told Samoa Observer how excited she was for the event and the results just make it more meaningful for her.

"This is my first time to play cricket, and it has been quite the experience," she said. "I've learned so much from this game, it's all about teamwork. 

“As the captain, I was very happy that my team was able to listen to everything I said. 

“It means a lot and just glad we did it today, I wanted to say thank you to our ward and everyone for this wonderful game day.”

The boy's team captain, Paga Felauaiga Pulu, vowed to return to the cricket pitch as he enjoyed himself on Saturday.

"I enjoyed every bit of the game, I never knew that I could play like this, but I'm just excited that I got this chance. 

“And no doubts I'll be coming back here to play, it's a really cool sport.”

Program Coordinator Magele Malaki said this is part of their stake's three-day program, for Friday they had their workshops, and Saturday is their sports day, and they will end their program on Sunday with a service.

"We want them to come together, be happy together, eat together, and just have fun before they go back to school,” he said in an interview. “Our main objective is to let them have fun, as we all know, not everyone is good in the classroom, some are good at sports. 

“So we are trying to promote both and for sports, they are only used to basketball, volleyball, netball and rugby as it is common so we thought of introducing them to cricket, football and other sports.”

Perelini Mulitalo of the Samoa International Cricket Association emphasised in her remarks that for the S.I.C.A. it was not a competition but more of a fun day of sports.

"I want to stress out today, that we don't call this a competition but a day of fun and achievements,” she said. “All the teams did well, we have some future cricketers here, and we hope that some of you will aspire to become a cricket player.”

The S.I.C.A provided trophies and prizes for the one-day cricket competition with two voucher prizes coming courtesy of the Samoa Stationery and Books (SSAB).