It may be the middle of hockey season, however if one were to set foot in the Gallagher Centre this past weekend it wouldn鈥檛 have been the hockey games that took centre stage.
Instead it was soccer that reigned supreme at the Gallagher Centre鈥檚 Flexihall from January 23-25, as well over 500 athletes, some as young as three, demonstrated their footy skills over a three day, 28-hour soccer marathon in the form of the Yorkton United Soccer Festival.
The festival, an exhibition of soccer prowess, was used both to demonstrate as well as promote the sport within Yorkton. 鈥淚t gives us a chance to showcase the sport a bit and get the word out that there is actually a pretty large soccer community here in town that鈥檚 still looking to grow,鈥� Yorkton United coach and adult player Mike Jakubiec told Yorkton This Week when asked about the Soccer Festival, adding that the festival is also the beginning of the end of the grassroots level soccer program for the 2014/15 winter season. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a club soccer festival so basically a lot of our grassroots are winding down their season next week so we get everyone together and play some soccer, including the first-ever games for the U-4 players.鈥�
However the grassroots level players didn鈥檛 just get to have fun and play soccer games all weekend; they were also able to watch and learn from more developed players. 鈥淲e brought in a few teams from Regina to play some exhibition matches on the competitive side just to show the younger grassroots programs what they can shoot for and what they can develop in to,鈥� offered Jakubiec, noting that a dozen Regina based clubs made the nearly two hour trek to Yorkton for the festival to engage in several high tempo, highly competitive soccer matches with Yorkton United鈥檚 boys鈥� and girls鈥� U-12 and U-14 teams.
In addition to the United Soccer Festival being the start of the end of the season for the grassroots level athletes, it also marked the start of the windup for the young competitive teams, namely the U-8 competitive boys and U-10 and 8 competitive girls who, according to Jakubiec, saw far more time practicing this year than they had in seasons past. 鈥淲e鈥檝e put the kids on the pitch a lot this season; a lot more than we have in the past,鈥� suggested Jakubiec, continuing, 鈥渟ome of the sixes and sevens that just finished playing were on the pitch three days a week.
鈥淎gain, that鈥檚 some of the competitive youngsters, but the development that they鈥檝e went through over the past three or four months is outstanding.鈥�
Jakubiec then mentioned that the reason the young competitive players have taken to the pitch more often is because of a new direction that the club decided to go in at the beginning of the 2014/15 indoor season; a direction that the board members thought would affect registration. 鈥淲e were actually expecting roughly a 20% decrease in registration numbers this year because we decided that we are going to focus more on developing the players鈥� technical abilities this year,鈥� said Jakubiec. 鈥淏ut instead we haven鈥檛 seen any decrease which is unbelievable because when we changed it and everyone including the board was willing and expecting to take that decrease of participation.鈥�
The lack of decreased interest, even with the big changes implemented prior to the start of the indoor season, proved that soccer is alive and well in Yorkton. A statement that was backed up by the smiles and cheers at the Soccer Festival this past weekend.
A festival that, according to Jakubiec, was a huge success. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a really good festival this year,鈥� mentioned Jakubiec. 鈥淚t was a good exhibition of Yorkton soccer in general and it was great to see the amount of people that not only participated, but came out to watch as well.鈥�
