The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
First for local news, The Phantom Lake Ladies Soccer Club will play their last game of the 2008 season on Thursday September 25 on the Creighton Community Soccer Field. For a first season, they have done incredibly well. Next year the season will start with a month of introduction to soccer and practice in June, followed by a season beginning in July and ending in the first week of September. There will be weekly pick up games after that date for any ladies still interested in playing. Check out www.flinflonladiessoccer.net for more information. Hapnot Collegiate will have a JV soccer program at last. The growing popularity of soccer has meant that students were having to wait until their later grades before having a chance to represent their school and play competitive soccer, now they will be able to hone their skills in Grades 9 and 10 before stepping up to the senior team. This is a giant step forward for Hapnot and their soccer playing students. Contact Rob Abbott for information on the JV program. By the time you read this, we hope to have tested the new soccer field in Flin Flon before we hold our first high school tournament at Foster Park. The weekend of September 20 should see the first competitive soccer played on the best surface in town; the grass has grown, the goal posts are here, the lines are on Ð lets play soccer! The Canada menÕs soccer team were beaten by Honduras last week at the brand new Saputo stadium in Montreal. I find this to be shocking, we produce some of the best soccer players in the world, the number of Canadians in the European leagues is proof of that. Yet we cannot fund a national training program worthy of a team that can beat a team from Honduras, or anywhere else for that matter. Soccer in Canada is run by an establishment that literally cannot see the woods for the trees, they are interested in numbers, and are successful in recruiting new players to the game. However, just like any other sports grass roots skills will only take you so far. We have a national stadium that does not even have real grass, BMO field in Toronto. We have no credible national selection and training program, and of course we have no professional league. Yet we have the delusion of saying that we play international soccer, which we do, I grant them that. But I play to win, if I lost every game I played, I would start asking questions, specifically, how do we improve. Take a look at the successful teams. Players are selected very early in their development. Not only do they attend soccer academies that blend soccer with studies, but they receive the best training possible. Then they play competitively in the U14 to U21 age groups before entering the full international stage. By this time they will be playing professional soccer, and honing their skills against the best players in their countries. Unless Canada develops a true professional league, develops our players with the same intensity of other countries, and has an international soccer development program, we will always be second in a two team game. Bomber season is here again, this season promises to be one of the most exciting for many years. As a soccer fan I am also a sports fan, lets hope that when soccer starts again next April, we are also watching our hockey team in the playoffs !
