The year was 1989. Wayne Gretzky became the leading scorer in NHL history, the Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were crowned Grey Cup champions and the St. Albert Cougars were the talk of the town as the Canadian U18 gold medallists in men’s soccer.
The second medal in three trips to nationals completed an incredible run for the six-time provincial champions during an eight-year span.
“We were the best team in the area, everybody would agree with that,” declared Ken Foster, coach of the St. Albert soccer dynasty along with Brian Rice. “I think we had the best run of any team in St. Albert.”
Saturday’s reunion of the 1989 Cougars – Jason Bartlett, Jason Bougher, Bobby Christensen, Conor Duffy, Mitch Flaman, Andrew Foster, Glen Gehlert, Mark Glowacki, Ifty Hanif, Trent Hillman, Sheldon Kenneth, Lloyd McDonald, Justin Rice, Mike Robinson, Mark Steinke, Mike Thompson (the youngest player on the team at age 16), Toby Vallance, Curtis Vos and Dorian Zubko – was celebrated with pride during a night of nostalgia at the St. Albert Soccer Association clubhouse.
“It’s great to see everybody together again,” said Hillman, a dangerous striker and an original Cougar. “When you’re a kid you don’t realize how special we were but when you’re older and you look back it’s like, holy cow! We did something amazing.”
The last chapter to a storybook finish for the Cougars was written by Bougher in the 89th minute of the U18 final against New Westminster at the Victoria Soccer Club. It was the only goal in the thriller between the Alberta and British Columbia combatants.
“There were so many good moments with this team and that was probably the best way to wrap it up,” said Bougher, while traveling down memory lane. “It was a cool time in history.”
It was arguably the biggest goal ever scored in St. Albert soccer history.
“Our goalie (Bartlett) kicked the ball up and one of our strikers went to play the ball. There was a bit of a scramble and it squeaked through and I ran onto it. There was a defender on me and I just got lucky and slotted it in. The keeper was right in front of me and I just picked a corner,” Bougher recalled with delight of the low shot inside the left post.
“It’s a great memory.”
Bartlett’s big kick was headed by Hillman at midfield for the streaking Bougher to work his magic.
“It was just one of those routine plays that we’ve done over the years where he booted it as far as he could and one of us flicked it on to Jason,” Hillman said of the memorable marker. “It was a classic goal, just on the ground and into the corner nice and easy. He was the one out of all of us that would’ve been able to do it because he had the composure and the rest of us were sort of loose cannons. He was the only one that had the mental toughness to just realize what you had to do in that situation because it’s tough when you’re playing in a big game like that.”
The euphoria surrounding the goal was intoxicating
“Everybody was just ecstatic when we scored. It was unbelievable,” said Foster with huge smile. “After that it was batten down the hatches and keep them out.”
Both teams were unable to capitalize on quality chances before Bougher’s breakthrough. In the second half, the Cougars nailed two shots off the crossbar and B.C. rattled the post with a hard strike.
The unflappable Bartlett was the main reason B.C. failed to find the back of the net during the epic struggle.
“It was a battle. It was back and forth the whole game and at the end of the game I remembered they had two or three chances that Jason made some unbelievable saves and kept us in it,” said Hillman, who was stopped on a one-touch slide after accepting a lead pass to go in alone and the possibility of a 30-minute overtime looming large.
The post-game party for the Cougars included the replay of the game of their lives.
“It was supposed to be live on TSN but the Blue Jays were in a playoff so it was delayed but we had a little reception set up for after the tournament and because the telecast was delayed we were able to watch much of the game on TV so that was neat,” Foster said.
The Cougars fed off the vibes as the hometown favourites at nationals.
“We had lots of friends and family there. If we were on the road somewhere there wouldn’t have nearly been the crowd but the stands were full and being an Edmonton team playing at nationals, fans of just the sport of soccer were out watching,” Bougher said. “It was pretty cool, especially to wrap it up in the last minute and win it in our last year together because we were disbanding after that.”
Foster wasn’t surprised the Cougars rose to the challenge after winning bronze at the U16 nationals in 1987 at St. John’s, Nfld. and placing fourth at the U14 championship in 1985 at Richmond, B.C.
“We had a plan to get better and we did. All the time it was about winning nationals and we did,” Foster said. “I started coaching with a bunch of these guys actually when they were about seven years old and when we got to, I think, under 11 (in 1982) we started at looking at representative teams, so we started the Cougars and just continued right through until under 18.”
The Cougars also traveled to Europe before provincials for elite-level invitational competitions and finished second at the Sotonia Cup in Southampton, England and third at the Ian Rush Tournament in Aberystwyth, Wales.
Hillman, who scored a pair of first-half goals in the 3-1 win over the West Island Lakers of Montreal for a berth in the U18 final, shared the Ian Rush Award as the tournament’s top scorer with an Estonian player with seven goals apiece.
“The youth teams are professional teams over there and we surprised quite a few people. It taught us how to play hard. To win the nationals is a lot tougher than winning provincials because you are playing the best teams. It was our last year so we just felt that it’s our last chance to win something,” Foster said of the 10 matches in 12 days.
The Cougars challenged themselves to be the best.
“Our last year I don’t think we even played in a league. We just played against men’s teams in the city like the Ital Canadians and Victoria and it gave us better competition. There were competitive teams in our age group but there wasn’t enough of them,” said Bougher, 44, who hooked up with the Cougars while living in Sherwood Park.
“Our team wasn’t known to be super talented. We were a very fit team and we had some skilled guys in key positions but it was a true definition of a team. Everybody played their role. We were consistently strong throughout the lineup, starting in goal. You have to have a solid goalie and Jason Bartlett was our goalie back then and if you saw the tape of the final he kept us in the game. Their goalie made some saves too but the heart of your team, the backbone, is your goalkeeper and he did a phenomenal job,” added Bougher, who is employed with a pharmaceutical company.
“It was a really good mix of really good guys. We accomplished a lot of good things, whether it be in tournaments or provincials or at nationals.”
Hillman, 44, credits the coaches for bringing out the best in the Cougars.
“They really knew what they were doing and now we realize it too. They added a few players every year because they knew where we were weak and then they learned from those experiences that we had, like at those nationals, and what we needed to do,” said the Paul Kane High School alumnus, who is now a father of three and owns a ceramic tile business.
“There was a lot of stuff off the field that happened but when we got on the field we were a team and now looking back, and I’ve played soccer ever since then, I know how hard it is to get to even a provincials now, never mind a national, so it’s just really nice that we did that.”
