Several St. Albert Impact female soccer players achieved provincial team status in their respective age divisions.
Brooke Lang, Cara Lang and Raeghan McCarthy were selected to the U16 squad for the Western Canada Summer Games, Aug. 7 to 16 at the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.
Sarah Ljuden also made it through to the final selection weekend.
All four girls play for the Impact U16 Tier I team coached by Rob Bourbonnais in the Edmonton Interdistrict Youth Soccer Association.
“I’m very proud and happy for the girls. It will be a great experience for them to compete in that level of competition. I’m confident that their play will contribute to a strong Alberta performance at the tournament,” Bourbonnais said.
The Impact were also represented on the U13 and U14 north province teams at last week’s Pacific Challenge Series at the University of British Columbia.
Ava Bourbonnais, Kelli Haffie and Brittany O’Keefe made the U13 travelling 18 team and Abigale Elgert was named as an alternate. Their Impact U13 Tier 1 EIYSA team is coached by Norm Odinga.
Jenaya Brown, Breanna Callander and Mila Van der Veen competed for the U14 travelling 18 team. Brittany Kindzierski is their Impact U14 Tier 1 EIYSA team coach.
The U13 squad posted wins of 2-0 against Manitoba, 3-0 against Saskatchewan and 1-0 against Alberta south and lost 2-1 to B.C.
The U14 side tied Manitoba 1-1, beat Saskatchewan 4-0 and suffered 1-0 losses to Alberta south and B.C.
The Player of Distinction games featured Haffie in U13 and Brown and Van der Veen in U14.
The St. Albert Impact U16 boys’ team coached by Kevin Jones returned home from a week-long camp with the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer with memories to last a lifetime.
“The experience provided to the boys was outstanding, exceeding our expectations greatly. The boys were treated exceptionally by the LA Galaxy staff and have been provided with some wonderful experiences that will, I hope, give them lots of great memories and stories to tell,” Jones said.
The players worked with a variety of high-level coaches and the sessions were well suited to their development and the team’s growth.
“The boys worked hard and to the best of their ability while trying to complete the tasks asked of them by the LA coaching staff,” Jones said.
Training alongside the Impact were the U18 USA national team, U20 Uruguay national team, a Mexican U16 club team and Galaxy and LA Galaxy II.
The Impact also played the LA Galaxy South Beach Academy and Daniel Ward, Jacob Toop and Jacob Turpin scored in the 3-1 decision.
Off the pitch, the Impact visited the Venice, Redondo and Hermosa beaches and the Staples Centre, toured the LA Galaxy Stadium and UCLA campus, participated in a session at the EXOS fitness training centre, enjoyed quality time with UCLA soccer assistant Leonard Griffin and Galaxy player Dan Gargan and attended matches of both Galaxy teams.
The second leg of the St. Albert Women’s Soccer League kicks off Sunday after the completion of the single division fixtures.
The round-robin format determined the five division one teams and six division two teams for the second half of the season.
In division one, Mavericks 09 (10-0) and Morinville Ladies (8-1-1) renew their rivalry at 5 p.m. and the Kickers (5-4-1) play Cosmos FC (4-2-3) at 7 p.m. at Forest Park field.
The division two matches include Snipe (2-7-1) versus Gini’s (0-9) at 5 p.m. and the Pink Ladies (4-3-3) against Mavericks 95 (3-5-1) at 7 p.m. at Forest Park and the St. Albert Blaze (4-5) face-off against the Devils (1-8) at 7 p.m. at Riel Park.
Mavericks 09, last year’s Tier 3 provincial gold medallists who finished 20-0 overall, are the defending division one champions.
Last month Mavericks 09 knocked off Morinville 4-1. The last time Morinville beat Mavericks 09 was 2011 for the division one pennant and a berth at Tier 4 provincials.
Suzanne Douziech and Mel Duro of Morinville finished tied for top spot in the single division Golden Boot scoring table with 18 goals apiece. Suzanne Schulz of Mavericks 09 was third with 16 and teammate Lindsey Hornung was fourth with 13.
The deadline to register for the 26th annual St. Albert Triathlon is Aug. 1 at www.zone4.ca.
As of Thursday, 205 triathletes had registered online for the sprint distance (750-metre swim, 20-kilometre bike and five-km run), try-a-tri (250m swim, 10-km bike and 2.5-km run) and relay team for the Aug. 9 competition at Fountain Park Recreation Centre.
Visit www.starrt.com for more information.
Last year’s race, hosted by the St. Albert Road Runners and Triathlon Club, featured an all-time high of 363 registrants.
The sprint champion was Kevin Clark at 59 minutes and 18 seconds (10:06 in the pool, 31:34 on the bike and 17:39 on the run).
Tammy Laubscher was the fastest female at 1:07:08 (10:37 in the pool, 36:03 on the bike and 20:29 on the run) for 11th place overall.
The following St. Albert basketball players were selected to the Team Alberta provincial age-group teams.
Isabella Cuciz, Kaitlyn Kluttig, Ella Stanley and Kenzie Thera, along with Brooke Froment of Morinville, in U14 girls, Abby Morrison and Alesha Stanley in U15 girls, Lauren Cardinal and Alexie Pusch in U16 girls and Jacob Mackay in U16 boys.
Cardinal, Pusch and Mackay will also hoop it up for Alberta at the Western Canada Summer Games next month at the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.
