THUNDER BAY – With the outdoor high school soccer season on the horizon, area boys’ and girls’ teams are busy working the rust off.
Twenty-four junior and senior teams are taking to the indoor pitch at the Thunder Bay Tournament Centre for the St. Pat’s Spring Classic Indoor Soccer Tournament, which got underway Monday and wraps up Tuesday.
This is the second year for the tournament, which saw 18 teams compete last spring.
“It’s been a few years since we’ve had indoor soccer on a regular basis at the high school level, so last year we decided to try and run a tournament to see what kind of responses we would get,” tournament convenor Frank Ruberto said.
“It was a pretty positive reaction as we’re all just trying to get the kids more playing time before the outdoor season begins next month.”
St. Patrick Saints senior boys defender Kaden Busch was pretty excited to have one last chance to leave it all on the indoor pitch.
“It’s pretty cool to play in front of your friends and family,” Busch said. “To have everyone cheering you on is pretty cool.”
He admitted there are some adjustments he and his teammates have to make with having to compete in the intimate confines of a hockey rink instead of an outdoor field.
“There are only five players out there instead of the 11 when you are outside, so you have a much different game plan,” Busch said.
“You don’t have as much room so you got to pass the ball more . . . there’s not enough space to dribble out there.”
Sophie Petteplace, who is a centreback for the Saints senior girls’ squad, said she is grateful to have the chance to play in a home tournament before graduating in a couple of months.
“I’m really grateful to be on this team,” Petteplace said. “It’s a great culture and I’d recommend it to everyone who’s thinking about trying out.
“I really want to win this one and we’re going in to give it everything we have as a team to do that.”
Unlike the outdoor season, which sees players from Grades 9 to 12 all on the same squad, this week’s tournament is split up into junior and senior divisions to give everyone as much playing time as possible.
“It not only allows for more participation, but it also helps build confidence for our younger players,” Ruberto said.
Ruberto’s long-term goal is to have the event feature schools from across Northwestern Ontario, though that’s a lot easier said than done at the moment.
“Having the one playing surface makes it really difficult to get the number of teams that we’d like to have in, so we’re a little handcuffed there,” Ruberto said.
“Hopefully, that will change in the future.”
Tournament play resumes at 9 a.m., with the championship games starting around 5:55 p.m. Tuesday.
