Members of the silver-medal winning U11 soccer team: In front, from left to right, Levi Bacon, Keegan Ouimet, Ben Paquette, Griffin White, Vayden Twin and Wyatt Morton. Back row, coach Darrin Johnson, Georgia Johnson, Cole Johnson, Kayden Pacholek, coach Tyrel Beckman, Kane Beckman, Konnor Herbert, Wyatt Brotzell and coach Bernie Morton.

Kevin McBain
of The Clarion

Kindersley Storm FC blew into Saskatoon on the weekend with five teams to compete in the Lakewood Kickstart outdoor soccer tournament this past weekend.

The Storm U11 team was tops among the Kindersley teams, earning a silver medal.

Coach Bernie Morton said that the team played very well.

“I was really proud of our team,” he said. “This is the first time that this group has played together and the kids gave it their all.”

The team started off the tournament with a lopsided win over Lakewood, before squeaking by the Humboldt Hurricanes 5-4 in game two.

In game three, they defeated Meridian 5-1 to finish the preliminary round undefeated.

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They then played Humboldt again in the championship final Sunday but this time they dropped a 3-2 decision.

“It was our second game of the day and Humboldt’s first, so I think that may have played a factor in the game,” said Morton.

Morton also was on the coaching staff or the under-9 squad that played five games at the tournament.

They started off with a 3-3 draw to Team Meridian on Friday.

Saturday, they defeated Lakewood Real 7-0, then Lakewood Madeira 7-5.

Sunday, they played the YUFC Manchesters and lost game one 7-0, but came back against them to tie the final game 3-3.

“They did very well,” said Morton. “We worked with Rosetown to have a team to go and it worked well.”

The under-13 team did well in Saskatoon also.

They opened up the tournament Friday night with a 4-1 win versus the host Lakewood club.

“It was their first experience playing 11 versus 11 on the big field and they did very well,” said coach Darin Wildman. “Their second game not so much.”

They played the Saskatoon Aurora team and lost  in a lopsided game on Saturday morning.

“I’m not sure what happened there,” he said. “That being said, our MVP was our goaltender. Without him it could have been much worse.”

In the third game, they lost 5-2 to Yorkton in an evenly matched game.

“We were a little flat for the first 20 minutes or so,” said Wildman. “But they came back, fought hard and it ended up being
a pretty evenly matched game.”

Janelle Layton was the coach of the U17 girls team and she said they did very well.

“It was a new experience for most of the girls,” she said. “In the end we didn’t win any games but we were competitive for the most part in all four of our games despite playing up a division.

“They played very hard and they were incredibly sportsmanlike throughout the tournament. I couldn’t be more proud of them,” she added.

Many of the girls had limited time playing soccer and some have never played soccer before, including the goalkeeper who did very well, despite not playing on a full outdoor field prior to this weekend.

The U17 boys team played four games and competed against some very tough teams, dropping three of the four games they played and playing to a 0-0 draw in one of the games.

“It was definitely a learning-lesson type tournament for us,” said coach Dan Lubberts. “We hope to take those lessons and get better for the next tournament.”

All of the team will play next in the Harder Avalon tournament in Saskatoon during the first weekend of June.

The girls will play in the Hollandia tournament May 25 to 27.

After that, there may be some friendly matches scheduled for June 9 and 10, followed by the spring wrapup June 15 to 17.

The Kindersley U17 teams will have one more weekend of action, competing in the provincial championships on the July long weekend.

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