SUNDRE – The president of the Sundre Soccer Club is optimistic about the sport’s potential to grow some more in the community following the group’s first-ever competitive league play with the Big Country Soccer Association.
“We had two teams in the league, which were our U11s and U13s,” Janelle Mikal recently told the Albertan during a phone interview.
While the U13s enjoyed the opportunity to play at a higher level this past season, the squad ultimately placed ninth out of nine teams in the league following eight games in which they tied once, said Mikal.
“They had fun but you know, it was their first year doing competitive,” she said.
“What was surprising was our U11s did actually quite well,” she added.
“They almost made it to district finals, which was awesome for their first time playing competitive.”
As there were more U11 teams in the league, they were split up into an east and west division, she said.
“Sundre tied with Olds for that second place. So, they almost made the division finals,” she said.
What ultimately decided the tie breaker was Olds finishing the regular season with 14 points against Sundre finally tally of 13, she said.
“We missed by one point going to finals, which is pretty exciting. I think they’re pumped up for next year as well,” she said.
Meanwhile, the club also had several home league teams including four U5s, three U7s, as well as two U9s, which including both of the competitive teams amounted to a total of 125 players altogether, she said.
Although that was a bit of a drop in registrations from last year’s 171 players, Mikal said she remains upbeat about the potential for the sport to grow and cited the club’s first-ever summer soccer academy that brought out approximately two dozen players who didn’t pass up the opportunity to further develop their skills post-season.
“We had two sessions,” she said, adding the first week-long clinic held in the evenings later in July was for the U9s and that the next was a combination of the U11s and U13s.
Duncan Hawkins, a premier coach from the Crossfield Soccer Association and the vice-president of Big Country Soccer Association, led both of the one-week clinics, she said.
“Duncan said those kids essentially got an entire season’s worth of training in one week,” she said, expressing hope that the experienced coach might again be available next year.
“I think it was well received,” she said about the academy, later adding it was a good way to wrap up the past season.
“In Sundre, we have interest in soccer, we have a community that wants to support soccer.”
Mikal also said the club appreciated the municipality’s support by including the soccer field’s rental fee for the academy in the group’s overall cost for the entire season.
Additionally, she expressed appreciation to all of the local businesses and organizations that sponsored the academy, which resulted in the club being able to charge a nominal fee of only $20 per participant.
“They made it really affordable,” she said about the combined contributions from the town, businesses and community groups.
The club had even been considering the possibility of keeping soccer going through the winter, but was unable to secure and space at the Sundre Community Centre, which was essentially booked up.
“There’s just no space available for us to set up a regular session,” she said, adding the club might yet still tentatively look at alternate avenues for next year to introduce a winter league.
“We’re hopeful to continue to grow soccer in Sundre with community support,” she said.
