On the May long weekend, 24 Special Olympic teams met at the South Surrey Athletic Park for a tournament that was also a qualifier for the 2009 provincial games.
Sunshine Coast United took nine players into the tournament and came out with a second place finish in their division.Saturday was a scorcher of a day. The home team won the first two games, which are called divisioning rounds and are used to determine placement for the tournament.
The first tournament game was played at 3 p.m., by which time the Coast team had lost one player to heat stoke and another suffering from mysterious abdominal pain.
"It is no wonder that our team did not rally for the first round robin game and we lost 8-5," said coach Laurie Miller. "However, Sunday brought us back with a full roster, a bit of a cooler day, and we won both our games. All our athletes played well with each of them contributing to the final result."
The Sunshine Coast Special Olympics soccer team has 14 athletes in total. They practise every Monday at 7 p.m. at the Gibsons Elementary School field off of Farnham Road. Athletes from age eight and up are welcome to join. If you are interested and want to know more about Special Olympics soccer, contact Miller at 604-886-4754.
