Hapnot Collegiate’s Kings soccer team was crowned champion of the north Sept. 28. Now, they’re looking for more success as they travel to Minnedosa for provincials Oct. 18.
Head coach Rob Abbott said he has high expectations for the team, hoping for a top four finish in the 10-team single-elimination tournament.
“As soon as you lose your first game, you drop out of the championship bracket and into a consolation bracket,” he said.
With the 10-team lineup for provincials not set yet, Abbott is still waiting for the final seeding.
“It’s very, very important to get a good draw. I’m really not sure where we're going to rank. Hopefully, we're going to get somewhere in that in that five or six in the schedule,” he said.
The Kings weren’t able to go south for a tournament this year, but might get some help from R.D. Parker Collegiate, the Kings’ Thompson-based rival who they beat at zones.
“Thompson did get down south and played three or four of the teams that we're going to see at provincials,” Abbott said.
“Thompson were 3-0 - they beat three of the teams that will be at provincials.”
Abbott said the team will look to change their formation depending on the opponent, starting in a 4-4-2, but dropping back more players if they’re up against a more dangerous opponent. It’s a tactic Hapnot used successfully in their zone championship game. Up 2-1 in the final minutes of the game, Abbott dropped back a striker to help control the middle of the field.
“If we have to play Morden, for example, in the first or second round, then I would totally change our formation,” he said.
“We've already talked about it in practice. We're likely either going to go to a 5-4-1 or a 4-5-1… All weekend at Thompson we played a 4-4-2. We were possessing the ball and we wanted to attack, so we played with two forwards, two attacking midfielders and two defending midfielders.”
Hapnot will look to play with the ball. Abbott guessed the team had over 70 per cent possession in Thompson.
“I have a core of kids who have played a lot of soccer and we play a real ball possession type of game,” he said.
“When you have possession of the ball, you're not getting scored on. That’s a real strength. We have a good defensive core and we got a really, really good keeper.”
The team is also waiting on what their final roster they take in to Minnedosa will look like.
“We had a 14 man roster [in Thompson], which is not huge, and we potentially could lose one of them,” Abbott said.
“If we dropped to 13, that's going to be tough obviously, with only two subs on the bench.”
While there might be bad news on the roster front, there could be potentially good news for the team on the weather front, as southern Manitoba is set to be pounded with snow before the tournament begins.
“We have a number of kids who just love the cold weather,” Abbott said.
“They hate the heat and they love the cold weather and they're all praying for snow. I don't think the cold weather would hurt us. I honestly think that the cold weather would be something that the kids would just absolutely just thrive in.”
