Colo Mero is most likely to be spotted at a football match cheering for the game he so intensely loves, although he confesses that playing wise he is on the average. And yet, he has taken the game to such a level in the State that he has added a whole new dimension to sports (particularly football).
He established Life Sports under Life Ministries during August 2008, which is also the first club in the State to have AFC and AIFF-qualified regular coaches and contract players.
Colo’s deep passion for football is crystal clear. Anything sports, especially football, wins the heart of this gentleman and his name is already so well known in the football circle. In fact, his is a household name, specifically amongst the youth, having worked with young people for about 20 years now.
He may consider himself an average football player; somebody who has not played at the high level (in his words), except a little bit in school and one or two years in college. But one can clearly see how deeply he is taken in by the game. He has been everywhere, wherever football is, and so, the line that follows does not come as very surprising but is revealing of the heart he has put into it.
“I read football, I talk football, I watch football - live or on television, and anything football, we want to be part of it,” Colo professes. ‘But my focus, first of all, is not football’, he goes on to say, even as he enlightens how football for him is a mission to reach out to people.
And you just to spend some time with him to discover that his heart beats for the youth. He has dedicated his life to the vision of his ministry, to seeing young people realise their potential through the mission that he passionately believes in.
If there is one thing that his decades of experience with young people in colleges and university has taught him, then it is the need to transform lives through instruments such as Music and Sports given the interest, the talent and passion that young people have for these two arenas.
He chose the latter because he felt that there was already enough space given for music in the church or other social events. That was really when ‘football as a mission’ began in 2008. It is also because he feels that in one way or the other, everyone is connected to it even as he puts across his belief that the following for football is big, towards which end, he also envisions how it can be tremendously used in transforming the youth.
Life Sports organises 1st AIFF D License Course for football coachesThe Director of Life Sports Football Club (LSFC), Colo Mero, who is also the Recipient of the Young Indian (YI) ‘Young Achiever Award’, Nagaland Chapter, 2012 is the brainchild behind Chizami Cup, an annual tournament that started in the year 2010, and has to its credit one of the highest prize money in the State.
Life Sports School Football is one of his most recent initiatives that have been instituted to give professional football training to school children in schools which are interested in grooming students in this aspect. About 40 boys in Kohima, aged between 6 and 13, in Northfield School are being trained while training is also being extended to rural kids aged between 8 and 14 at Chizami.
The youngest player is a 6-year-old boy, Colo says, while emphasising that it is important to instil discipline in the players right from the start. He adds that most of the players in Life Sports are raw talent. But in spite of this weight, he has gone on to build one of the best football clubs in the State.
Given the right support, especially from the government in terms of facilities, he strongly affirms that our young players, who are blessed with immense talent and potential, can go not only national but international.
Colo’s mission is truly youth and football. “I raise support and run social businesses to pay expenses,” he discloses.
But more than providing opportunities for footballers, he sees it as a BIG mission opportunity for young people to come and join. Towards this end, he also states sensibly that the privilege to do mission work may not necessarily extend to places like Arunachal Pradesh, Cambodia, China, Bhutan, etc because the same need is extensive right here at home.
For this alumnus of Patkai Christian College, he is vigorously pursuing his vision to foster a holistic development of footballers with emphasis on professional training, Christian discipline, relationship and vocation so as to enrich their own lives and the lives of others.
Although there’s still a long, long way to go as far as facilities are concerned - “we don’t have that kind of facilities which established professional clubs have…..” - but the heart he has for young people seems enough to sustain Colo’s passion one day at a time, one week at a time and one year at a time.
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