It's been a road filled with bumps and bruises for the Yorkton United U14 boys' team as they wrapped up their inaugural Saskatchewan Premier Soccer League (SPSL) season with a 10-0 loss at the hands of QCT United.
The loss gives United a final record of one win, one draw and 12 losses; good enough for last place in the eight team league.
But the record, according to head coach Mike Jakubiec, does not do his team justice. Instead, Jakubiec feels his team was competitive in many of the games despite fielding a team that consisted mainly of junior players. "We won one and tied one and were competitive in about five or six other games," suggested the U14 head coach following his team's final game of the season. "Half the season we did get blown out, but we were playing teams that were on average 30 or 40 pounds heavier than us and six inches taller so it can be tough.
"They sometimes pushed us around."
However Jakubiec believes that, because his team was one of the youngest in the SPSL this year, next year they will be the ones doing the pushing. "I think at the end of the day we developed more here than we would have had at a division two level and that was the goal. I think it leaves us in good position where roughly 90% of the kids from this team will return for next year," offered Jakubiec, continuing, "hopefully next year we'll be a little bit more competitive and just a little bit closer to this level. We have a bit of work to do but I think the boys are pretty committed soccer players and they'll get there."
As for next year? Jakubiec has already set the goal for the team. "I think realistically our goal should be playoffs next year. This year we scored goals against everybody. We created a half dozen chances in most games that we've played so I think that if we can develop our defenders and understand the game a bit more and play a little bit more composed, I think we'll do quite well and we should make playoffs."
