Winning provincials proved costly for the U14 St. Albert Impact.
The first St. Albert male soccer team to qualify for nationals since the 1989 gold-medal winning Cougars has been actively soliciting donations to cover the price tag for the Oct. 5 to 10 tournament in Moncton, NB after capturing the Tier I championship Aug. 21 in Calgary.
“The fundraising has been on-going,” said Impact head coach Chris Clarke at Wednesday’s training session at Forest Park field. “It’s definitely been a team effort by the parents and the community and lots of different business owners, both in St. Albert and Edmonton and even some as far as Nisku that have really stepped up and helped us.”
Tonight’s pub night at the Beer Hunter should assist the Impact’s goal of surpassing the $30,000 mark.
“The budget in total previous to all the credits we get from CSA (Canadian Soccer Association) and ASA (Alberta Soccer Association), that sort of stuff, was about $52,000. The flights alone are 24,” said Clarke, who estimated $24,000 has been raised so far.
The event starts at 7 p.m. and sales from the 300 tickets printed at $10 apiece go directly to the Impact and 10 per cent of food and beverage sold will also be donated to the team.
The festivities included a silent auction, door prizes, raffles and a 50/50 draw with a maximum prize payout of $5,000.
“We really need the pub night to be good because 30 was kind of like that’s going to scrape us by to get there and back but then we’ll miss out possibly on a couple of things there so we’re hoping to get to 35, 36 somewhere in there,” said Clarke, who has been busy on and off the pitch spearheading the Impact’s journey to nationals.
“It’s probably a fulltime job at least. On top of preparing the kids to play, this is our fifth or sixth practice since we’ve got back and plus we’ve had a game already (1-0 win over Sherwood Park U17 on Nick Duro’s goal Sunday), and in between that raise money and contact sponsors but we’re doing good,” he said. “These boys spent four days in a row at St. Albert locations selling chocolates outside of the different grocery stores and at (indoor) tryouts and they raised just over $4,000 themselves doing that so that’s pretty impressive. They’re 14-years-old and they’re out there putting in five hour shifts at a time four days in a row to raise that kind of money so it was good to see they did that with no complaints and all happy with big smiles.”
The Impact are still basking in the spotlight of their incredible feat as provincial champions.
“It feels great. Right from the beginning we wanted to get to nationals and we worked really hard throughout the season to go undefeated (14-0-2 in the Edmonton Interdistrict Youth Soccer Association) and then worked even harder at provincials to win,” said centre-back Sam Russell. “It’s really nice to think that we’ve made it but we’ve got to continue working really hard and stay focused.”
Clarke is confident the players will build on their success at provincials with a medal-winning performance at nationals.
“It took a practice or two to get them to really, really understanding that yes you accomplished something amazing but let’s not stop there,” he said. “We really believe we have a legitimate shot at winning this thing. The teams that are going to be there, they’re the top 10 teams in Canada, but we really think we’ve got the team that’s got a chance.”
The players also have high expectations.
“All we want is first place and be the best in Canada,” said goalkeeper Ivan Hirankunda. “We have actually a lot of talent on this team and we can do something really big.”
“We hope to win,” added Russell, 14. “We want to try out best and do really well in the tournament.”
The Impact plays, in order, Dartmouth FC of Nova Scotia, Fraser Valley of B.C., St. John’s SC of Newfoundland and Hillsborough United of Prince Edward Island in group B.
The Brampton East Blades of Ontario, Bonivital SC of Manitoba, Eastside FC of Saskatchewan, FDSA of New Brunswick and the Yukon Strikers form group A.
The top teams in both groups qualify for the gold-medal match and the second-place finishers compete for bronze. The rest of the teams meet in the crossover-seeding phase.
“It’s going to be hard and really good competition to play against. It’s going to be intense,” said Hirankunda, 14. “It’s a really big tournament. It’s not like one of those little tournaments you go into to. Nationals are something else and so were provincials. It’s going to be a very good experience for myself and my teammates. I can’t wait.”
The Impact will continue to rely on their back-end for support up front.
“Our motto and philosophy all season has been very, very strong defence to the point where we only gave up (seven goals) throughout the whole league and we didn’t give up a single goal in provincials. Obviously our keeper, Ivan, is fantastic. I call him world class, but it’s really defence from everywhere. Our strikers defend from the front and then our midfield will defend. The moment we lose a ball we work really hard to get it back,” said Clarke, who works in tandem with assistant coaches Donal Russell and Eli Bartlett.
“Now, if we can find a way to put some in the net that would be helpful. We’ve struggled a little bit at that so our prep so far has been a lot of different looks and a lot of different ideas to try and score a couple of more goals. We tend to not have a lot of luck so we don’t get those cheeky goals. We have to work twice as hard to score but every now and then we get a little luck on the defensive side so we’ll take it.”
At provincials the gold-medal final was decided on penalty kicks after 80 minutes of full time and 20 minutes of extra time for the 1-0 thriller (4-3 on penalty kicks) against Foothills.
“It was extremely good for us because when ever we say we’re a team from St. Albert, (people) say they’re not good. All the doubters are from Edmonton but that's OK,” said Hirankunda, a Grade 9 St. Nicholas Catholic School student.
The biggest save of Hirankunda’s budding career was his clutch stop diving to the right with the penalty kicks knotted at three and a goal by Foothills would’ve sealed the deal.
“I kind of get goose bumps thinking about it,” Hirankunda said.
Russell was the Impact’s sixth shooter and he delivered big-time with an accurate right foot.
“It was very nerve-wracking actually,” said the Grade 9 Vincent J. Maloney School student. “After Ivan’s save to keep us in the game coach Chris yells at me from the side to tell me I have to take the next penalty and I’m thinking, oh my, what’s going on now. I’m not normally a top penalty taker but I always go bottom left and I was thinking I’ve got to go bottom left, I cant shoot any where else, so I stepped up then stepped back before sprinting at the ball and I nailed it hard bottom left.
“I was glad I didn’t miss it. It felt really good.”
Foothills still had a chance at netting the equalizer against Hirankunda but the attempt rattled the crossbar and the Impact players, coach and fans went wild.
“I had butterflies in my stomach. I was thinking what if this goes in but I tried to stay positive in my mind knowing I was going to make the save,” Hirankunda said.
The Impact have two exhibitions on tap at Riel Recreation Park before nationals: Sunday against the ASA REX female academy team at 5 p.m. and next Saturday against an older male team at 6 p.m. Before the match, the St. Albert Soccer Association is hosting a brunch for the Impact as a sendoff for nationals.
“Everybody from SASA has been so supportive but specifically (executive director) Chris Spaidal, (technical director) Graham Wood and (Impact vice-president) Candice Jahns have been fantastic. You couldn’t ask for a better group of people to be behind you,” Clarke said. “SASA is also sending Graham with us so it will give me some mentorship and some help which is also fantastic.”
