ATHABASCA – Athabasca’s U15 soccer club returned home victorious, albeit without a gold medal, after competing at the Alberta Soccer Association’s Tier 4 Rural provincial tournament July 4 to 6 in Leduc.
The squad triumphed in all four games but were seeded into the bronze medal match after a roster error involving an ineligible player overturned a 3-0 victory over St. Paul Friday night.
“It was a bit of a downer, but the kids really persevered. They didn’t take it and say this is it, they really pushed through and showed the resiliency,” said coach Laura Hynes.
“Everyone worked just an extra little bit harder to secure whatever we could from it. Nobody was disappointed winning that bronze medal, everybody was ecstatic.”
The forfeited game wasn’t the team’s only challenge of the weekend. Going into the tournament, Athabasca was missing a dedicated goalkeeper after their regular-season backstop was prohibited from play due to being overage. With a regular player in net, the boys had to focus on playing their best defensive game to help them out.
“They really pushed it as hard as they could; we changed strategy, we changed positions to really match some of the top players of other teams so it was shut down before it could happen,” said Hynes.
“We got three shutouts in our first three games, so we really shut them down defensively. They didn’t really get any shots in those first few games,” said Leo Wagner.
The season was Wagner’s first as a coach. In between practices and games with the U19 Lakeland United team — who finished the season with a silver medal — he worked with the U15 group to as an assistant coach.
“(I enjoyed) just being able to help out the upcoming players, teach them everything I know and hopefully get them to be the best players they can be,” he said.
While the trip to provincials wasn’t the first visit from an Athabasca squad in recent years, Hynes said it was the first time in a while they had won a qualifying tournament to do so, instead of receiving a bye.
The team played its regular season games against the Lakeland District but wasn’t officially in the league, so they faced off against teams from the Tri-County District for the qualifier, which includes Westlock and Morinville.
Once they qualified for provincials, the team won 3-0 against St. Paul, 1-0 against Sherwood Park, 5-0 against Slave Lake, and 4-3 against Ponoka in the bronze medal game.
Athabasca’s team included five kids from Lac La Biche, who made the drive into town twice a week for practices. While the U15 group was the only Athabasca team to qualify for a provincial tournament, seven Lakeland teams qualified, with all seven winning a medal.
