"Rain, rain go away" was the chant last Friday as 1,000 youth soccer players geared up for their year-end tournament.
When all was considered, some leagues did go ahead as planned on Saturday, while others chose to postpone.
Mike Gabriel's Menace showed their second place league position was no fluke as they powered their way to take the trophy in the U18 boys division.
Trudy Diening's team surprised again as they worked their way to the final after a seventh place league finish. The Menace slammed in four goals to earn the laurels.
Rod Hamilton's Offsides showed their U15 league leading form as they nipped Jeff Maisonet's Roberts Creek crew (second place in league play). The Blue Man Group, coached by Steve McGillivray, earned some respect as they beat the Offsides 1-0 to show they could not run to the final undefeated.
The team that caught my eye was the U13 girls' winner coached by Pam Bunbury and Dani Thompson. The Strikers looked and played like a well-coached team and were the class act of the age group. Strikers took the trophy on the strength of an undefeated run that ended with a 3-0 win over Tim Struck's Pender Heartbreakers. Molly Joe and Becky Izad had outstanding performances in a team of very strong players. The trophy topped off the season that saw the Strikers take the league title too.
No report on the U13 boys tournament was available this week, but I hope to cover that in a later column.
The TimBits (U7s and U8s) and the U9s had their tournament postponed.
The girls U15 and U18 leagues were also victims of the bad weather and will play their tournaments the week of April 2 to 6.
