Watch the UmBongo Football Team Pre-Match War Dance!
War Dance Motivational Fires Up Young Footballers
LIVELY young footballers from the UmBongo sponsored Wedmore Juniors have developed a slightly different strategy to win their games this season.
They are aiming to top the league with a little help from some smart new kit, a few drops of jungle nectar and an energising war dance before matches.
The dance is being led by some nifty footwork from the Wedmore team’s newest recruit – their giant purple monkey mascot.
Isle of Wedmore A and B Under 9’s, who play in the North Somerset Minis League, say their dance fires them up in the same way that the Haka inspires the All Blacks, and that it will help them crush the opposition.
Wedmore team coach Tim Blackburn says “Everyone from 7 to 70 knows the Um Bongo Congo jingle and when UmBongo gave the teams Um Bongo animal masks along with the new sponsored strip, that was it!”
“They were jumping around, pulling scary faces, and singing the ad. The idea for a pre-match war dance, with the team chanting words they made up themselves, developed from there.”
Um Bongo has sponsored shorts, shirts, socks and kit bags for the lively Under 9s and their team coaches.
The teams have also been given their own special mascot: an Um Bongo purple monkey suit and a thirst quenching supply of the tropical fruit drink for match half times.
Both teams have been practising hard at their Recreation Ground home ground in Blackford Road.
They’ve already won the first game of the season, and according to second team coach Duncan Giddens, the pre-match routine is getting the team really fired up.
“It looks really something, especially when our purple monkey mascot joins in, though he’s not allowed to take part in the match! We’re hoping this dance will bring in the scores, and get us top of the league this year.”