Younger Huntsville Soccer Rep teams wrap up season with tournament

They played in three divisions, U9/10 boys, U11/12 girls and U12 boys. Huntsville had four teams in the competition and one of the games had the Huntsville U9 boys playing the U10 team.

When it was all done, no scores were reported because the emphasis was on fun for the day. Mind you, the teams and their players knew their results. However, in the end, all received a medal for their participation and went home with fond memories and ready to prepare for next season.

Up to age 12 in the Rep leagues the emphasis is on developing skills and fun. The scores are secondary. For those moving up to the older teams next year that will change and the focus or challenge will be more on the game outcome. That’s not to say they won’t be having fun, just with a little more intensity.

Carey Smith coaches the U12 Huntsville girls’ team. “The key goal is to keep as many girls in soccer as we can,” she said. “It’s hard when you have so many sports going on. And we want to keep the girls from Huntsville in Huntsville instead of being pulled to Bracebridge or other teams. Trying to get dedication is sometimes harder in the summer and at this age too.”

U12 Girls Soccer Edmonds GM Rep Team – Back from left: Chloe Punkari, Alyssa Jolliffe,Carey Smith (coach), Jasmine Richardson, Hannah Peitsch, Johanna Nicholson;
Front from left: Jessica Aben, Mackenzie Austin, Mya Marshall, Ava Bijl;
Keeper: Morgan Smith
Missing from photo: Grace Gaughan, Erin Gaughan, Grace Mitchell, Sylvie Berg, Ali O’Dell

One of the attractions for all Huntsville Rep teams was to play clubs they haven’t seen before. That meant either a greater challenge because of the skill levels, or a confirmation that their team’s abilities were pretty good. In this tournament teams came from Innisfil, Barrie, North Bay, King City, Kawartha, Leaside, Orillia, Peterborough and Collingwood.

Samantha Caplan is the Huntsville Soccer Club administrator and a big part of her job was to make sure the Muskoka Cottage Classic Festival ran smoothly. She will also make recommendations on how well the Rep team season went and what is needed for next year. This was the third year for the Rep program. There were seven teams taking part, up from five the previous year, but she sees even greater growth next year. She says a change in when games are played could make a difference.

“One of the biggest things for our teams is the travelling,” she said. “So often after work or after school these kids are travelling two hours to their games and two hours back. Our district has been talking about revamping how we do it and get more kids involved and more families committed and one thing would be doing more festivals like this on the weekends instead of games during the week. That should help because the travel does turn off a lot of families.”

That discussion will take place in the coming weeks. For now everyone seemed to be enjoying the day, and everyone came away a winner…

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