The St. Anthony’s girl’s soccer team is back on the pitch and looking to see how far they can go this season.
The team has been practicing and has already played a couple friendlies with players from the adult coed league. Coach Gavin Makse likes what he sees. He has about 13 players from Grade 8, up, including a strong contingent that have been playing with the St. Anthony’s program for years.
“Some have even played in the adult league over the last couple seasons,” said Makse. “You can see their progress, especially now they are in Grade 11 and 12. This helps too with the younger players.”
The team has been scheduling exhibition games leading up to the seventh annual Sabre Invitational tournament on Friday, September 30. They have invited Strathmore, Olds and Holy Trinity Academy from High River.
“We are vying to win that tournament, it will be a good test two weeks before Zones,” he said.
After that, the team is going to host the Tier 2 Zone Championship on October 14 and 15, the first time this event has been held.
“High school soccer is not an affiliated Alberta School Athletic Association (ASAA) sport in the province, so the zone championship is the end of our season, the highest that you can go,” explains Makse.
He said when teams get to zones, they often see schools of all sizes competing, which can make for a lop-sided tournament. Within the zone, there are typically two leagues; the Foothills and the Rocky View league, and both typically have about six teams. Another approximately half dozen teams don’t play in a league.
By having two tiers at the zone level, it would allow more parity.
“It will be a more balanced Tier 1 competition and a more balanced Tier 2,” he said.
This suggestion was passed at the South Central zone level, and implemented this season.
He is confident the team will do well this season.
“We made great progress last year, we finished very strong, and got better as the season went along,” he said.
