Strathmore U15 Spurs champions of Okotoks Anthem Community Cup

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

The Strathmore U15 Spurs have returned victorious from the Okotoks United Football Club’s Anthem Community Cup tournament, bringing gold medals home with them.

The team’s Coach, Ryan Parkins, who also serves as the Strathmore Soccer Association Technical Director, said despite a host of challenges, the team pulled through and are proud of their achievement.

“I think the team was pretty happy with what they were able to deliver at the end. They took a few injuries but still fought through it and banded together as a team and showed a lot of depth,” said Parkins. 

The Anthem Community Cup was, according to Parkins, the first competition the team has competed in that used a tournament format, as with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, other opportunities to compete have not been made readily available to the team.

Though the Spurs competes in the boys’ league, they are a mixed team and include a few young women on their team.

“I think the team came in feeling pretty confident, we’ve had a strong year and they’ve really found a resource in one another. They played well as a team, not just as individuals which is really nice to see,” said Parkins.

“I think we’re definitely a defensive-minded team. We have some really strong goalkeeping in the back and a well-structured defensive line.”

Despite their defensive focus, Parkins said the Spurs are beginning to fill the gaps in their offence and are starting to better pressure the other teams they compete against. 

As of Jan. 26, Parkins added the Spurs were sitting at second place within their regular division. 

Over the course of the tournament, the Spurs rampaged their way up the ladder undefeated, but that isn’t to say there weren’t any close calls.

“We did come through undefeated, but we were trailing in both our first game and in the gold medal match and we were able to come back from that and pull ahead,” explained Parkins.

“(Okotoks was) a skilled group, so it was quite a good battle between the two teams. They were able to put away a goal on us a little bit earlier in the game … but they were under a lot of pressure from us.”

Ultimately the final game came down to the latter portion of the second half, when the Spurs managed to score their second goal to pull ahead and shut out the hosting team for the remainder of the game.

“We had a lot of opportunities that just found their way outside, or in a few instances, their keeper made some excellent saves, then our team was able to respond quite quickly and get it evened up,” said Parkins. 

The team is not scheduled to compete in any more tournaments prior to the provincials bracket, for which the progression format has yet to be decided.