Youth soccer set to wrap up

Soccer has continued to gain popularity in Fort Frances—with the 700 members of Fort Frances Youth Soccer as living proof.
The association, in the process of wrapping up its season, will hold its semi-final and final games this Saturday (June 21) starting at 9 a.m. at the St. Francis Sportsfields.
“They’ll get full hour games and then all the teams will have a wind-up barbecue afterwards with our awards and souvenirs presentations to all the players,” FFYS president Sarah Gould said.
“We’ll also have trophies and medals for our Division IV and Division V winners,” she added.
The inaugural winner of the Bryce Devoe Memorial Award, for most dedicated player, also will be awarded that afternoon.
The teen was killed by lightning on the soccer pitch last May—an incident that spurred the donation of a lightning detection machine at the field.
“We’ve had coaches within Division V and other volunteers recommend to us players who they felt met the most dedicated requirements, so there are lots of players in the running [for the award],” Gould noted.
Soccer certainly has surged here in recent years.
“We had an overwhelming amount of people register before the season started so we were taking [applications] up until the second week of the season,” Gould said.
“We are sitting about 700 people, about the same as last year, but we did actually end up with a few extra late registrations because the youngest age group of [Little League] was cancelled.
“We then had more kids in our youngest age groups, and that was great because that’s where kids get introduced to the game and learn how to be part of a team,” she added.
Gould said the size of the program requires a lot of outside support from volunteers, and thanked the coaches for their commitment to the association.
“We try to have a coach and assistant for every team, and we did have a little bit of a hard time at the beginning of the year to get enough volunteers, but they pulled through,” Gould remarked.
“We do like to always have a back-up so someone is always there supervising in case one can’t make it out.”