The past four years have seen a group of talented girls born in 2002 compete for St. Thomas in the London and District Youth Soccer League (LDYSL). Along with league play, the team has travelled to Ottawa for the Gloucester Invitational and Montreal for the Brossard Challenge. The team was also fortunate to be the flag bearers for the national anthem at a Toronto FC game last year.
This year, the team embarks on a new challenge that will see them compete in the newly formed Inter-District division of the Western Ontario Youth Soccer League (WOYSL). This is the highest level of play that the Ontario Soccer Association presently offers to this age group of players in this area.
The St. Thomas team is made up of many multi-sport athletes who compete in competitive hockey, basketball and volleyball over the winter months. To keep a touch on the ball during the soccer indoor season, the team has been training once a week at Centrefield Sports. The Vipers will be competing against Cambridge, Waterloo, Kitchener, North London, Byron and Windsor in their WOYSL division.
The team is transitioning from playing 9v9 to playing 11v11 and will get their first opportunity to adapt to the full-sized pitch when they compete in the Guelph ‘First on the Turf’ tournament the weekend of May 2-3. That will be followed by the WOYSL Kick Off Cup on May 16-17 and then the St. Thomas Soccerfest tournament May 30-31.
Coaches Gerry Safadi, Nelson Caeiro and Paul Jeffery anticipate this to be a season filled with excellent competition, and they foresee the girls striving to improve their technical and tactical skills.
– Story and photo submitted by St. Thomas Soccer Club
