Dozens of Coast teams came together under sunny skies for the Sechelt Nation Annual Seven-a-Side Soccer Tournament at Ted Dixon Memorial Park last weekend with two Squamish teams also vying for the $1,000 top prize.
The Coast teams dominated with CAL's Crushers taking the top spot in the women's division and the Sechelt Indian Band team 2 Hot 2 Handle taking second place in a tight semi-final game ending 2-1.
In the men's division the Fujis beat out the Peelers with a score of 5-3 after a tough semi-final match.
Second place teams brought home $500 for their respective teams and everyone won the chance to engage in some fabulous football during the three-day-event.
"It went really well and everyone had a good time," tournament co-ordinator Garry Feschuk said.
"They were happy that something was organized. What we wanted to do was offer some soccer for teams over the Thanksgiving weekend because there is never anything going on during that weekend we usually have this annual tournament in May but this May no one organized a tourney, so I decided to put it on as part of our self government celebrations."
The action started Friday night with teams taking to the fields under the lights. Saturday saw 24 games played on three fields from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. On Sunday the event wrapped up at about 7 p.m. with team and individual awards handed out.
"The most inspiring players were Corrina Julius and Scott Johnson. Most sportsmanlike went to Sarah Schutz from CAL's Crushers and Frankie Dixon, who was probably our oldest player on the field. He's 61 and he had three generations playing on his team - his son and his grandson. The best goalie award went to Carolyn Spence from CAL's Crushers and Denny August from the Fujis and most valuable player awards went to Laura Nickerson from CAL's and Kevin August from the Fujis," Feschuk said.
He noted the tournament went so well the Sechelt Indian Band hopes to organize another one for the spring.
"We want to keep that play going. We are the only community that doesn't have a spring league while all other communities have spring and summer leagues. We are suffering from the lack of play," Feschuk added.
