Joey Payeur
There is a storm warning for the Grand Forks, N.D. area this weekend, with a guaranteed chance of “Lightning.”
Head coach Caroline Spencer will lead the Borderland Lightning U14 soccer team into its first competitive test of the season against four boys’ teams at the Greater Grand Forks Soccer Tournament this Friday to Sunday.
“I don’t expect to win the whole thing but I do expect them to score lots of goals,” said Spencer, who once again is running the program she started last year.
“With Nick Hahkala, Brett Allan, and Jamie [Spencer] up front, we’ve got a really good scoring team and they work really well together,” she noted.
The 18-person roster, which includes four girls, features 13 returning players from last year.
“This year we have the basis we need,” Spencer stressed. “We’ve been able to work on set plays, positioning, and more intricate stuff.
“They’re catching on really well,” she added. “I saw them use some of the stuff in [Fort Frances Youth Soccer] that we’ve been working on.
“They’re letting each other play their own positions and not thinking they have to be covering up for each other all the time.”
Defensively, Spencer is pleased with the progress she’s witnessed.
“The boys, in particular, are physically a year stronger and are taking it more seriously than a year ago,” she remarked.
“They’re doing their workouts . . . even my daughter is doing her running.”
In goal, Brady Meeks has moved up from his back-up role last year to the starter’s job and is striving for new heights despite a lack of height.
“Brady played so well in [FFYS] but he’s shorter, which has always been my concern,” noted Spencer.
“But we’ve taught him how to overcome that and now he can jump high enough to tip the ball over the net.”
The Lightning only played in one tournament last year, which was put on by the Thunder Bay Chill.
But their North Dakota excursion is the first of three events they’ll participate in this year.
The team also plans to return to the Chill tourney in August, as well as a competition in East St. Paul, Man. later next month.
“I wanted to do this tournament early and use it for our litmus test, which we didn’t get last year before the Chill tournament,” Spencer reasoned.
“To win the championship this weekend would be nice,” she added.
“But from a coaching standpoint, we can use this tournament to see where we are and what we need to work on.
“I remind them of the Thunder Bay tournament last year [the Lightning went 0-1-2] and constantly ask them if we want to do better than that this year,” she said.
Spencer has plenty of skilled helpers with a wealth of Muskie pedigree this season in assistant coaches Jess Caul, Sierra Cousineau, and Cam Lidkea.
“It’s great because they can show them what I’m telling them,” said Spencer, before adding with a chuckle, “Then I don’t have to hurt myself.”
The Lightning will enter this weekend injury-free, but will be without two regulars who had previous commitments.
