Saskatoon's U-15 Alliance girls team brings home historic silver medal
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The national medal is the first in the province's history for a U-17 girls team.
Saskatoon’s U-15 Alliance girls soccer team brought home some historic hardware for the province in the form of a silver medal from the 2024 Canada Soccer’s Toyota National Championships, which took place last weekend.
The tournament was hosted in Quinte West, Ontario, and little did that city know it was going to be a part of history for a Saskatchewan city 3,108 kilometers away.
Saskatchewan has not fared well in the tournament in the past, but the Saskatoon Alliance Academy team had already rewritten history by taking down their Regina rivals in the provincial finals, a task that Alex Hein, coach of the U-15 girls team, said was very difficult.
“I think it’s always been in the back of people’s minds that Regina usually always gets a leg up at these competitions,” Hein said.
“They’ve represented us twice now at this age group, back to back, and they were our competition in the finals that we overcame.”
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After defeating Regina, it was off to Ontario where the team tempered their expectations, but after a loss to Manitoba to begin the tournament, Hein said something clicked and the girls realized they could make some noise at the event.
“We all went back to the dressing room, and it was that feeling of we weren’t upset, we were just kind of shocked that, this is kind of the level across the board,” he said.
“There’s that hidden feeling that we could actually seriously compete here.”
The floodgates opened as the girls rattled off three wins in a row to defeat Ontario, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia.
“The entire time, the girls were just clicking,” Hein said. “We were having a good time off the field. We were having a good time on the field, and they were just focused.”
Saskatoon dropped the final to Alberta 3-0, but still came home with a medal for the first time in the province’s history for a U-17 girls team.
“The running theme was just that bittersweet feeling,” Hein said. “We were so close, but at the same time, it’s unreal, it’s an accomplishment that no one else has done.
“I grew up playing soccer here, we’ve always known the kind of results that Saskatchewan provides,” he said.
“But I’m a very competitive person, so going into any game, I think as long as you play your best and you apply yourself, you can win any game.”
Hein said the win is a tremendous step forward for women’s soccer in Saskatchewan.
“For us to reach that in our debut year to really come out of nowhere… I think it really showcases the talent that we have here on the female side,” he said.
The U-17 boys team came home with a gold medal from the tournament.
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