Strathmore Soccer Federation continues development

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore Soccer Federation is looking forward to the upcoming season to continue to have success of advancing players through drop-in leagues and to get kids more engaged in the sport.
“We want to pursue the numbers of getting kids into soccer as inexpensively as possible. I’ve operated a drop-in program, last summer was the first time we’ve had one side of the field for the younger kids and the other side for the adults,” said Mark Shorhen, Strathmore Soccer Federation president.
“We’re hoping to continue to grow that, it’s just a fun drop-in, nothing super structured or anything. There’s probably one of the bigger things I’d like to see grow this year because we’ve went from five or six players all the way up to 30.”
Shorhen added that if players like the drop-in program then they can branch off up into the competitive and the organized section of the association.
The indoor season is still ongoing, so registration for outdoor has not yet gotten under way, but will begin at the end of the month in hopes of an April start.
“The registration hasn’t really done anything just because we’re playing the indoor season, usually we don’t until the end of February see a lot of people registering,” said Shorhen. “We’ve seen an increase in the lower age groups, with our U10 and U12, usually we’ll just put in a single team. The last couple of years, we’ve had two team of each (and) in some categories we’ve had a complete girls team.”
The girls teams have seen greater registration numbers because of the influences that recent events such as the Olympic soccer that have had on them, and the affordability.
“I think the Olympics had a fair bit to do with it and that soccer is still an inexpensive sport, you don’t need a lot of equipment and not a lot of travelling,” said Shorhen. “Now that we have our own fields, at least half of the games are in Strathmore.”
The U4, U6 and U8 are $100 for the season. Older players start at $215 and go up from there based on age groups.
For more information and to register, players can log onto their website (www. strathmoresoccer.ca).