SUNDRE – Introducing a competitive edge to local soccer seems to have rekindled interest in the sport.
The Sundre Soccer Club, which just last year was still an informal, in-house league, joined the Big Country Soccer Association this season.
After some games were rescheduled earlier this month on account of the weather, the U11s and U13s recently played some of their first-ever competitive games against teams from out of town.
One of them was on the evening of Tuesday, May 14 when players from the U13 team in Olds came to play in Sundre at the fields in the southeast near the Bergen Road, or Highway 760.
Mom Krys Phillips, who was out watching the game to cheer on from the sidelines, said she appreciates the effort invested by the club’s volunteers to introduce the club to a competitive league.
“It was a little slow last year,” said Phillips. “We had a lot of practices and just one game. Whereas this year, we’ve had a lot of games and squeezed in some practices.”
Her daughter River Holmes, 11, spent a portion of the game goaltending and along the way raised some impressed eyebrows.
Club coach coordinator Becky McPhee, who also coaches the U11 team and was out lending a hand with the U13s that evening, said Holmes shone during the first half when the netminder managed to fearlessly block a penalty shot.
“The ref came over afterwards at halftime and he just was like, ‘That was the stuff of legend!’” said McPhee. “He was just so amazed that she saved the penalty shot.”
Recalling from her own past experiences playing soccer on the offence and driving toward the net, McPhee candidly confessed having herself never been particularly partial toward throwing herself in front of a ball that had just been kicked at full speed.
“When I was in soccer, I was one to just flinch if the ball was coming at me – I was not goalie material,” she said.
But some kids, she added, have an innate fearlessness that emboldens them not to hesitate to throw their bodies in front of an oncoming ball. And Holmes certainly seems to be among them.
“She was putting her tiny little body just in harm’s way like every time they were shooting at her,” said McPhee. “She even did like dive and roll.”
The team generally speaking has in a fairly short period of time begun to find its stride, with the players working together and along the way discovering where their strengths lay and what positions they prefer to play, she said.
And on May 14, both Sundre and Olds came fully prepared, with neither team yielding an inch.
“We held the lead for quite a while,” said McPhee, adding Sundre was ahead about 2-1 throughout the first half.
But Olds eventually caught up to claim the lead – at least momentarily – and from there the game went back and forth until the squads settled the match tied at 5, she said.
“I think it was a really good even kind of matched team for the kids to play,” she said.
“By the end of the game, they were all like just wired. They just had so much fun and it was so rewarding to see the good attitude and sportsmanship,” she said.
And despite Sundre’s smallest player enduring a near point-blank soccer ball to the face, which required filling out an incident report, she said he before long had already begun to rebound.
“It was a hard kick right like five feet away from him kind of thing, and it just went right in the face,” she said, adding the situation “was kind of scary” but that the referee handled it very well.
“He braced his neck and kept him laying down and just talked to him through moving his limbs and all that,” she said. “After about three, five minutes, then he was able to kind of stand up and walk off the field.”
The experience did not end up souring the player on soccer either.
“By the end of the game, he was just about thinking that he was ready to go back on,” she said.
McPhee’s children also play soccer, and she said they were excited for the opportunity to be able to play other teams, which makes it much more worthwhile.
“They have a reason to be practising and it gives them a goal and just makes it so much funner, that challenge and the competitiveness and the camaraderie that it kind of creates on the team,” she said.
“Competitive for this age – U11, U13 and up – is so important to be able to do,” she said, recognizing that does require more commitment from parents as well.
“We’re really thankful for the parents that are committed to bringing their kids twice a week,” she said. “I think it’s worthwhile for the kids.”
McPhee also expressed gratitude not only to the Big Country Soccer Association for facilitating the transition into a competitive league, but also the Sundre club’s president Janelle Mikal for taking the initiative.
“Janelle has been so focused and passionate about making it happen. She doesn’t even have a daughter in competitive, but she’s just pouring her time into it just to make it possible for the kids,” said McPhee.
“She’s been such a crucial cornerstone of the board to make this all work for the kids, which we’re so super thankful for.
