Athabasca's soccer teams continued to shine at the Sherwood Park District tournament on May 25-27, with the U15 boy's and the U13 team's taking home medals.
In the U15 boys category, Athabasca FC ended up winning the gold medal, when they beat the Whitecourt Warriors by a score of 5-1 on May 27. Earlier in the day, they had edged out Drayton Valley United 2-1 in the semi-final.
Team manager Amy Walling said the team members really enjoyed themselves out on the field.
"Each player really played their heart out, and it showed," said Walling. "I can not really signal out any one player who did well, because they all played hard for their team, and in the end, they got the job done."
Athabasca FC played a total of four games at the tournament. Walling said they won every last one of them.
"We expected to win against the first team, as they were a local team from the area," she said. Athabasca ended up winning 5-nothing against the Sherwood Park's Team Two on May 26. "But the rest of the games proved to be a challenge, but they played hard, and they prevailed."
The other round robin game that day saw the boys beat blank Stony Plain 1-nothing.
Athabasca U13 Spartans win bronze
The Athabasca U13 Spartans may not have taken home the gold medal, but they did get bronze in their tournament.
The Spartans won their round-robin game on May 26 against Sherwood Park's Team 1 by a score of 2-1, but fell in the semi-final later in the day against the Edson Vipers by a 3-nothing score.
But the next day, they got the bronze, outscoring St. Paul 4-1.
Coach John Heroux said the children had a blast at the U13 tournament.
"It was very much a team effort," said Heroux. "Teams from Athabasca typically does well at these tournaments, as the community really does have a great soccer program, and are very competitive in the Tier 4 program."
Each year, Heroux said they typically start out by playing rural-teams, and then go out and play at the bigger tournaments.
"It's often more competitive when we go to a tournament," he said. "The team becomes so much stronger as they learn to play a more structured game."
He added that soccer season usually starts at the end of April, and usually goes until the end of June.
Several soccer teams from the U11, U13, U15, U17 and U19 from Athabasca also took part in the Camrose Night Classic Tournament from June 1 to 3.
