For the first time in the Rayside-Balfour Soccer Association’s (RBSA) history, the league entered both a boys and a girls select U-11 team this year, with both competing at the 8th annual Panhellenic Soccer Tournament held in Sudbury this past weekend.
The girls team competed in a round-robin pool which included the Sudbury Canadians and the Collingwood Comets, losing three straight games as the tournament utilized a complete divisional cross-over schedule. The Rayside ladies dropped their opener 5-0 to SC Italia, then fell 7-0 to the Newmarket Hurricanes and 8-0 to the Sault Civics.
Despite their tournament struggles, coach Cindy Blanchard was just happy to be involved in tournament play with her inexperienced squad. “Our expectation for this tournament was to have no handballs, and so far, we’ve got it going on” she said. “They’ve done amazingly well.”
Going into their first season with the select team, Blanchard, a seven year veteran of the coaching ranks within the RBSA, realized that it would take some time before the team could have some success. “At the beginning of the year, my expectations were just for the girls to get to know each other and start playing together,” she said. “My expectations weren’t high, because I used to play soccer myself, so I know it takes a few years to get a team to work well together and to play well together.”
She believes the team has already shown improvement, especially in their passing game and working as a team. “They’re starting to practice and communicate on the field a little bit more” she said. “They still need work. It’ll take another year or so before we’re actually ready to compete, but I’m very proud of them.”
At the end of the day, she believes the kids are out there just enjoying the game, but they remain competitive at all times. “The girls love to play,” she says. “My girls are very competitive. They hate to lose and they love to win.” Blanchard, who also coaches U-12 and U-10 mixed teams in Rayside, explains that she gets personal satisfaction out of watching all the kids play.
“I’m a teacher, so I love kids,” she said. “This is what I do. I’m off for the summer, but I have to have my daily dose of kids.” The coach indicates that she’s happy overall with how things have gone, but would like to see some more support. “We have amazing parent support, but I’d like to see the community support us a little bit more.”
The Rayside-Balfour U-11 Girls roster includes: Maxime Hague, Milyssa Hunt, Celine Lepage, Danielle Grenier, Hailey Lively, Emily Luong, Keandra Sutherland, Paige Gromet, Bethany Purdon, Melissa Bergeron, Mallony Labine, Brittany Bradley, Julie Benoit, Kelsey Dupuis, Stephanie Giebrecht and Taylor Rouleau.
With the Panhellenic tournament drawing a total of 64 teams, it was no great surprise that this number included a large contingent of local and Northern Ontario teams, all competing for 14 divisional titles. One such local team was the Rayside-Balfour S.C. United U-11 boys.
Going into tournament play, coach John Purdon was just hoping that it would serve as a good experience for his boys. “We’re just trying to develop soccer players,” he said. “We just wanted to create a competitive soccer team with house league soccer players from our area and expose them to a higher caliber of soccer.”
Although Purdon feels the select team developed well in each of their three tournament games, they ended up coming just a little short, dropping three straight games. The Chelmsford and Azilda crew lost a tough 1-0 decision to the Italia Flyers in their opener, following up with defeats by scores of 5-0 to the Highland Ford Sault Civics 5-0 and 4-0 to LSSC United 95B. Still, Purdon was happy with the team’s performance.
“The kids have developed at a rate a lot quicker than I thought was capable,” he said. “We were competitive and we played strong and we made a good showing of ourselves.” Although they are only competing at a recreational level, he believes his team still gave it their all in each and every one of their games, but with an end goal of having fun and improving their soccer skills.
“They’re learning how to play soccer, they’re growing in the love of the sport and they’re learning to compete.” Looking forward to next year, Purdon hopes to get some fresh legs to come in and help the team. “We’re going to try and add a couple new players,” he said. “Right now, we only have four or five subs.”
Ultimately, he says his involvement with the youth gives him a personal sense of satisfaction. “I love watching kids grow in the sport and also teaching parents a love for the game.” He’s also proud of the fact that this is the first year the Rayside organization has fielded both a boys and girls U-11 select team.
“It feels great to do something that’s never been done before,” he explains. “It’s never been done before at our soccer association (The Rayside-Balfour Soccer Association). They used to always mix them together. I hope to develop more teams that can do it.”
Players suiting up with the Rayside-Balfour U-11 boys are: Shayne Johnson, Joel Lamontagne, Alain Sicard, Jory Blanchard, Isaak Laakso-Kantola, John Mark, Brett Whitmell, Zackary Blais, Marc Fortin, Eric Trottier, Joel Descoteaux, Devyn Hickey, Michael McQuarrie, Patrick Laplante, Jonathon Rossi and Daniel Blais.