Mitch Calvert
It’s not too late to sign up for the Borderland Soccer Association’s men’s and ladies’ leagues for the upcoming season.
The league held registration yesterday evening, but a late registration date is set for next Wednesday (May 20) from 6-8 p.m. in the atrium at Fort Frances High School.
The sign-up fee is $100 for men and $90 for women, based upon a roster of 15 players per team.
As first reported in yesterday’s Daily Bulletin, each division may be forced to scale back by one team, but league president Tristan Hutton said that’s a last resort.
“A lot of the young adults who play in this league and come back from university aren’t finding jobs here in town,” he noted.
“The mill isn’t hiring and jobs are hard to come by, so we’re expecting a lower turnout because of that as people stay in the city to find work.
“We’re not looking to contract [the number of teams], we’d like to have as many people and teams as possible, but we see the writing on the wall and things aren’t too favourable for us at the moment,” Hutton added.
“It’s kind of a sign of the times right now, and we aren’t the only ones in this boat,” he stressed.
Hutton said the league is trying to improve parity by putting a cap of 20 players per team.
“It’s usually most of the same people who play year after year, and by all means go ahead and play on the same teams with your friends, but we do have a maximum 20 players per team that’s there to prevent stacking your team,” Hutton explained.
“It goes against the league’s interests if there’s one team that has all the best players.
“We want to prevent the 12-1 scores and things like that that we seem to often get, so teams will fill up to about 20 and then the extra players will be designated to a team,” he added.
Hutton also noted once all four teams have been filled, then the additional players can pick and choose which team they get added to—but not until the cap has been reached.
Hutton said the disparity between teams has led to forfeits and a lack of interest in past years, and that’s another reason for the rule change.
“There’s people that sign up and don’t show up, and we’ve gotten a lot of forfeits over the years,” he noted. “We’re trying to find a way to avoid that, as well.
“We’ve had a team from Emo and if the team they are playing just doesn’t show up, it’s obviously a pain for the guys who have driven a half-hour or 45 minutes to get to the game, so we’re just trying to get people to respect the league and the other teams.”
Exhibition games will take place during the week of May 25, with regular-season action slated to begin June 1.
The schedule will feature 16 games for the men and 12 for the women.
“We aren’t as courageous as the young kids [youth soccer], they go when it’s still snowing out almost,” Hutton laughed. “But there’s some issues with the field if we are out there too early in the season.
“The big players get out there and charge around all over the place and when the grass hasn’t caught or seeded yet [in the spring], it gets pulled out and gets patchy,” he noted.
For more information on the upcoming adult soccer season, visit www.borderlandsoccer.com
