Coaches:

Mrs. Michelle Belliveau (belliveau@kes.ns.ca)
Ms. Toven MacLean (tmaclean@kes.ns.ca)

Programme:

The 2009-2010 Junior Girls’ soccer season is well underway.  This year’s team boasts 21 players at a wide variety of levels of experience.  As many of our players last year were in Grade 9, this is very much a building year for the program.  Many of our players this year are in Grades 7 and 8, lending long term vision to the program.  The philosophy of the Junior Girls Program is one of fitness and inclusion.  Regardless of level of experience, all players who wish to join the soccer program are invited to do so.  All girls will work on skill development and all girls will have an opportunity to play in our regular season games.  When we enter the playoffs, the strongest members of the team will move forward to play more competitively.

We have many games scheduled with both A and B teams from the Valley and are also looking forward to the CAIS tournament taking place in Toronto from October 1st to 4th.  15 very excited young ladies will accompany the coaches to Bishop Strachan School in the heart of Toronto for this tournament to play against private school teams from across Canada.

Photo Gallery: click here

Games to Date:

Tuesday, October 6th:

A very young, developing team from Coldbrook came to play our developing players this afternoon.  It was an excellent game in which some of our more inexperienced girls had an opportunity to play an entire game without a lot of substitutions.  A few of our more experienced players rotated through the back on defense to provide them with some support and to send the ball up the field to them.  Goals were scored by Emily M., Brooke B., and Amber N.  The final score was 3:0 for us.

October 1st-4th

From October 1st to 4th the Junior Girls travelled to Toronto to participate in the CAIS soccer tournament in Toronto.  The tournament was hosted by Bishop Strachan School and was a great success!  Our team went out a bit early on the first day and took in the Royal Ontario Museum, which was just down the street from our hotel and then travelled by subway (a first for many of them!) to the CN Tower to travel up to the top and walk across the glass floor there.  They ended their first day with a few hours at the Eaton Centre and an early bedtime in preparation to play the next day.  We played three games on Friday.  While we did not win any of them, Emily M. scored a goal against ECS.  The weather was terrible and the girls went home soaked through and in need of hot baths.  On Saturday, we played another three games.  Again, we did not win any, but the girls proved to their coaches and their opponents that having fun is just as important as the win.  On the final day of play, we beat ECS to secure 14th out of 16 participating schools.  While not our best tournament performance of the past few years, the level of play of the whole team improved, they “gelled” as a team and they had a great time.  Next year…Montreal!

Tuesday, September 29th:

Mt. Uniake came to our fields to play.  Although they were victorious in our last game, we took them today.  Carly P.  had an incredible game and scored a “hat trick” which was added to with a goal by Emily M.  All of the girls played well and we are finally starting to see the girls playing their position well and sending the ball up the wings.  The girls are supporting one another on the field and as the level of chatter increased, so did the number of goals.  The final score was 4:1 for us.

Thursday, September 24th:

The team travelled to Central Kings to play their team today.  This was a tough game against a strong team and we were defeated 5:0.  Cristina C.  is developing in the net and strong defensive play was noted by Taylor H. and Carly P.

Tuesday, September 22nd:

Today we travelled to Mt. Uniake to play their girls’ team.  Cristina C.  rejoined the team as goalie, having recovered from her injury.  It was a very close game, as the two teams were quite evenly matched.  Joanna M.  scored our only goal in a game that Uniake won 2-1.  The younger players on the team had an opportunity to receive a little extra playing time than usual in this game and I hope that when we face them again next week, we will prevail!

Saturday, September 19th:

As we had classes this Saturday and West Hants was looking for games to fit into their unusual schedule this year, we decided to book a game with their A-team.  Having already lost to their B-team 4-2, the girls entered this one with some trepidation.  The goal was to get the ball up the sides of the field and to mount a strong defense against these very strong players.  While we lost 5-0 (well 4-0 if you don’t count the one we scored on ourselves!), the coaches were impressed that we held them to that score!  Excellent passing was noted and the girls are really starting to come together as a team, despite the score on the board.

Friday, September 18th:

Our games with the Hantsport A team were booked back to back.  Having already lost to this team yesterday 4-0, the girls were prepared to fight hard today.  Amber N. took over the net from our injured goalie Cristina C. and played a great game.  The Hantsport team took us 4-0 again, but we were very pleased with how hard the girls continued to play, right up until the whistle.  We may have lost, but this team has got great heart and spirit!

Thursday, September 17th:

Having already played one game at 9 am in the morning this day, the girls were a little worn down when we travelled to face the A team from Hantsport at 3:30 pm.  The girls worked hard to get the ball up the field but were overpowered by the strong defensive line of their opponents.  There were a number of excellent shots by our team on their net, but we couldn’t get past their excellent goalie.  Hantsport took the game 4-0.

Thursday, September 17th:

In this season-opening home game against the B team from West Hants, Emily M. scored the first goal early into the first half.  West Hants came back with two quick goals but Mackenzie S. slipped another one past their goalie to tie things up.  The game remained tied until the last 10 minutes of the game.  West Hants scored two quick goals to win the game 4-2.