Strathmore soccer teams to play against Edmonton’s best
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
Strathmore Minor Soccer has three teams taking part in the Inter-cities tournament July 16 and 17. The U12 boys will play in Calgary, while the U12 and U16 girls will be heading to Edmonton. The Inter-cities takes place annually, and sees the top teams from Calgary pitted against the top teams from Edmonton for each tier.
“I’m not really surprised. The U12 I knew was going to go just because we had such a really good season. The U16, we had a rough start but we kind of all pulled together as a team and they started to really pick it up,” said Chantal Smith, assistant coach for the U12 and U16 girls teams.
“You could really see a lot of the girls working together and really picking up what Ken (Oliphant) was teaching them, and they were really starting to come along.”
Some of the team members won’t be at Inter-cities, and Smith said they had to pull a few players from last year, which will lend a different dynamic to the game. She feels the top things the U16 girls need to focus on is communication, passing and just focusing on the game.
Georg Nobiling, the U12 coach, said this is the first year his team has been able to qualify for Inter-cities out of the seven years he has been coaching, and they are excited.
For the U12 boys coach Simon Pritchard, the team is sitting right where he wanted them to be. The team he taught in the winter made it into third place in Tier 5, and he wanted to see the same thing happen with this team. The current team made it into second place.
“I said to them when we started, ‘I think we’re good enough to be in the top three’, and to get the top two is a big achievement for them,” said Pritchard.
“We wanted to match the winter team and we’ve actually excelled by one place which has been really good.”
Pritchard said he is trying to raise the ability and skill level in Strathmore. He has a range of players, from higher-level to low-level, and he said by having such a mix on the team he has found it quickly raised the skill of the low level players.
“Some of the guys have never played outdoor soccer, or indoor, competitively before. They now understand it’s not just about turning up and running around, it’s actually how you play as a team and how you defend, as well as you attack,” said Pritchard.
He said they have the lowest goals conceded in their league and the defensive work has become very good. Though Pritchard wants his team to be competitive, he wants them to play in a positive way.
“We don’t commit fouls, we don’t be disrespectful to the opposition or the refs. They go about it through hard work and teamwork as well as individual ability.”
One of Pritchard’s goals for the team in Inter-cities is to win against the other Calgary team. The boys had played them a few weeks ago and Pritchard said it was a really wet day. Mix that with a 6:30 p.m. kick off at a field in northwest Calgary, forced some players to struggle to make it in time. Pritchard said the boys started off the game great, then they fell apart.
“My main aspiration is to do well against that team. They weren’t particularly magnanimous when they beat us either, they were a bit cocky. It’s not a revenge game but, it would be nice to show them we’re better than that game which I know we are,” said Pritchard.
Winning Inter-cities, or at least faring very well could help show that Strathmore teams have the ability to play in high-level competitive soccer. Inter-cities is set to begin July 16, and each team will play at least three games.