Summer of the tigers for Leaside
[attach]867[/attach]A baker’s dozen of Leaside’s finest took home the U8 Youth Development Soccer League championship title back in July.
A group of rep freshmen, the Toronto Soccer Association’s development league champs overcame an initial loss and ended up singing Queen’s “We are the Champions”.
But it wasn’t known if they were going to win until they very end, coach Gavin Harvey said.
“It was kind of like this interesting ride for the kids to go through this whole year where we were never really in first place until near the end,” he said. “It’s quite competitive.”
Battling on the turf with teams from High Park, North Toronto, Etobicoke and Mooredale, the last four games were nail-biters Harvey said.
“I guess what was sort of interesting about it was it probably wasn’t until July 7 when we played one of North Toronto’s three teams and we realized we could actually go for it,” he said. “We ended up winning 10 league games in a row and I think the last three or four we won by one goal.
“They were all these high-intensity, exciting games.”
One game, against the Islington Rangers, had the boys down 3-0 at the half. But they persevered, winning in the end 4-3.
“I think that game was pretty emotional,” he said. “It was pretty cool for the kids to have that much — there was a lot of people watching that game against Islington — we kind of had to keep the train rolling on.”
With a little help from assistants Neil Salmon, Andy Kerr and Will Giles, the Tigers pulled in a league record of 11-1-1, not including tournaments.
The real focus wasn’t the winning though.
“I guess the important thing too, … it’s all about skill development at this age and just working with them to get their soccer sense,” Harvey said. “Our kids just worked really hard with that. We really put a lot of effort into developing their skills and they were excited.
“You don’t want to lose sight of that because as soon as you start getting into ‘winning at all costs’ you damage the kids who aren’t involved,” he added. “You aren’t developing their skill level, which they need year-over-year until they get to eleven years old or so.”
As for the kids, they were excited with the honour, but it wasn’t until later they were able to celebrate with the trophy.
“When they actually got the trophy, which wasn’t at the game, then it was them kissing it.” Harvey said. “Like the Stanley Cup, we’re going to let them keep it for a week and then give it to the next guy on the team.
“It’ll come back broken, and I told the parents to buy some super glue,” he added. “It was a real neat year. Our overall record was quite astonishing.”
Team members included Scott Campbell, Jackson Kerr, Stewart Giles, Davis Kustec, Kyle Marshall, Bijan Najafian, Liam Salmon, Liam Rivard, Matthew Taylor, Sam Smeeton, Matthew Harvey, Garrett Thomson and Nicholas Dotsch.
Harvey said he’s looking forward to keeping the bulk of the team together for next season when they graduate to the U9 level of soccer league.
“Hopefully our kids will get to work one day a week in January,” Harvey said. “They’ll be all geared to go and it’ll be the same thing: improving their skills.”
