Hi, my name is Jeremy Mirken, and I'm a member of Sepak Takraw of USA, Inc. (STUSA), a 501 (c) (3) non-profit that promotes the underground sport of Sepak Takraw in the United States. We represent the interests of tournament-level and casual players, enthusiasts, and the general public while striving to elevate sepak takraw to prominence within the USA.
See what we're all about:
Watch when we pranked two players from FC Bayern Munich:
After eight years of grassroots development efforts and community projects, our hard work was rewarded by the International Sepak taktaw Federation (ISTAF) with an official invitation to select the USA's national sepak takraw team and to represent the United States at the 2022 ISTAF World Cup of Sepak Takraw in Daejeon, South Korea in November 2022!
On extremely short notice, we have rallied to put together a delegation of 6 players, one team manager and one head coach, who will travel to Korea on November 21st, 2022, to compete at the ISTAF World Cup in the 3v3 and 4x4 events! Our delegation includes:
Ker Cha of Minnesota (Server)
John Thao of Minnesota (Server)
Oo Reh of Nebraska (Feeder)
Yan Naing Soe of Indiana (Feeder)
Christ Moo of Iowa (Spiker)
Jim Thao of California (Spiker)
Gao Chang of Minnesota (Team Manager)
(pic coming soon)
Jeremy Mirken of Texas (Head Coach)
Our self-funded delegation proudly unites teammates across six different states and multiple ethnic groups to represent the USA at the 2022 ISTAF World Cup!
Our delegation will face strong headwinds this year. Compared to other attending countries that receive government funding, that train and live together in preparation, and receive performance-based compensation incentives, our US athletes receive no government funding. We are entirely self-funded. We'll have only a handful of days to train together, which we'll achieve by hosting a tournament in Minnesota at the end of October, where we'll meet for the first time to compete against each other.
At least for now, we are self-funded athletes who set aside our real lives for a week to chase the dream of bringing home a gold medal and finding ongoing sponsorship.
Any donations received through GoFundMe will go toward offsetting 1) the costs of plane tickets and travel insurance to South Korea (about $1500/person), 2) the costs we incur to rent training venues and needed equipment, and finally 3) the purchase of Team USA apparel, which we will proudly wear and which we will offer to donors at or above the $500 level as a humble sign of our gratitude for your support.
Please support Sepak Takraw of USA, Inc. as we fight to accomplish the impossible at the 2022 ISTAF World Cup in Daejeon, South Korea!