Soccer season wraps up with year-end festival

The Niagara-on-the-Lake Soccer Club concluded its season with its year-end festival Saturday, sponsored by Hummel Properties. 

All of the fields at the Virgil Sports Complex were buzzing with activity as kids from age four to 14 gathered to wrap things up in celebratory fashion. 

“It was a fantastic closing festival,” Club president Carrie Plaskett tells The Local. “All the kids got so excited to get their medals. The smiles on their faces were amazing, you could really see how proud they were, and you could see how much they all improved throughout the season.”

With 380 children registered for soccer in town, Plaskett says the club is very close to being back to pre-COVID participation levels. 

“We had 90 Timbits (ages four and five) this year,” she adds. “Overall, we saw a lot more kids getting back on the field this summer. Keeping high numbers for our little ones, Timbits to U7, we had some great numbers there.”

The enthusiasm of the coaches at those levels, Plaskett added, cannot be underestimated. Their efforts, she said, were instrumental in encouraging kids to hopefully come back for the 2024 season.

“And we had great support from the local business community,” she added. “Our sponsors are so important in keeping soccer affordable for everyone each year.”

For the first time this summer, a select team was run at the Under 9-10 level, organized by one of the volunteer coaches, Conor MacNeil. He pulled together a group of interested kids from that division’s house league to participate in tournaments and exhibitions against other centres, and had some success. 

“I’m really proud of the way Conor pulled that all together,” says Plaskett. “It was something new and different for our club, and it was a huge success. I think we will be able to offer a travel team at the next level for those kids going into next year.”

Plaskett credits the club’s head referee Lucas Michlik for helping to develop a young core of soccer officials. 

“We had a good number of referees,” said Plaskett, “a lot of young ones. There were a couple of difficult situations on our fields with some visiting teams’ coaches. I’m really proud of how our refs handled it, and how Lucas followed up with them and gave them guidance on how to deal with those situations.”

Registration will open in late January for the 2024 soccer season.