They may not be returning home with a championship trophy, but the Thunder Bay Chill does deserve praise.
The Chill were playing for the top prize in the Premier Development League Sunday in Texas. They had a tough challenge in front of them in the form of the host team Austin Aztex.
That final game didn’t go the way the local soccer club or its fans had hoped, and the Austin squad left the field with a 3-1 victory and a PDL championship.
But in the aftermath of that disappointment fans and players alike should look back on this season with heads held high.
Fans may not be celebrating a championship, but the local soccer enthusiasts were treated to a championship season.
Many PDL fans are forced to watch their soccer clubs achieve small victories. Some squads don’t have the talent to ever reasonably hope for a playoff birth so those fans are left hoping for small improvements over the previous season.
That isn’t the case for the Chill or its fans, and it hasn’t been the case for many years. The regular season for the Chill has become almost a warmup to the playoffs. With that talent comes raised expectations -- anything less than a league championship can be considered a failure.
So technically 2013 for the Chill is a failed season. But fans can at least take home the consolation prize that they had the joy of watching a club have the kind of season that almost every other PDL fan is dying to see.
Aztex fans the exception, of course.
