Submitted by the Huntsville Soccer Club
After a lengthy holiday break, teams in the Huntsville Adult Indoor Soccer league were anxious to get back at it. Especially with reinforcements arriving for almost every team.
Unfortunately, a full day and night of adverse weather resulted in the postponement of games until Tuesday, January 15. So, teams will now have to wait to see how their winter transfer window signings shape up.
Going into the post-holiday part of the schedule, Dave Caplan’s Gooners Huntsville squad leads the way having collected 13 points from five games so far. He’s followed by Wolfsburg Algonquin, who sit on 10 points, and Galacticos Muskoka with 9.Club
With Brandon Occhiuzzi, Carlos Burmeister and Doug Allen pacing the Gooners early on, Caplan did his transfer signings before the holidays. He added Andrew Fenwick in Week 2, Lynlee Armstrong in Week 3 and finally Amanda Steel-Coke in Week 4.
“It’s nice to know we have a great team who have fun playing together,” says Caplan. “We haven’t even gelled completely yet and we’re in first place. The sky’s the limit with this awesome group.”
Wolfsburg Algonquin didn’t make any moves over the holidays, but there is still some time left to fill their last roster spot and make a push for first place. However, captain Graham Thompson is sure to be wary of messing with the strong chemistry his team has developed so far. Wolfsburg consists of Dawid Jusczak, Greg Cholkan, Heather Gibbons, Caleb Grim and Anthony Asturi.
Galacticos captain Chuck Lefebvre was quite happy over the break, bringing into his team a fan favourite in Kate Kerr. The wily veteran and all-round solid footballer is a welcome addition to Chuck’s team, which also features Jez Bell, Annie Schmidt, Constantin Carere, Jonathan Devonish and Matt Beall.
The bottom half of the table has Il Lupi Neri and La Viola tied with five points apiece while We Ain’t Got No History is languishing in last place having lost all five matches so far.
Desperate for help, We Ain’t Got No History captain Mel Mercier has found a young and talented player to add to her squad. Andres Baroque is a relatively unknown entity in these parts, but at a recent training session many were impressed with his technique. He joins Leigh Cameron, Steve Fairhall, Fraser McTurk, Mike Norsworthy and Al Bastedo.
“He’s a solid player and will certainly help us,” says Mercier. “We’ve actually played well in three of the five matches. I know we’ll get some wins moving forward.”
La Viola captain Kyle Litchfield added Craig Gourlay to his team during the holidays and they’ll be coming out of the gates firing. With Carly Litchfield, Jordan Kizito, Gabriel Lopez, Falko Thoennes and Sandra O’Dell, the team is aiming for a good start in 2019.
Meanwhile, Il Lupi Neri (the Black Wolves) captain Chris Occhiuzzi stayed within his nature when he recruited veteran Jason Sprathoff. He could be the edge Il Lupi Neri need and will fit in well with Ted Maduri, Louise Azzara, Mike Hill, Darren Parsons and Dustin Whitcomb.
Despite the poor results, Occhiuzzi is confident his team is on the rise.
“We’ve had some tough games where we almost won but ended up with a draw or a loss,” says Occhiuzzi. “We’ll be taking points from the leaders in the next portion of the season and moving up the standings quite quickly.”
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