The U19 girls and U15 boys Celtics soccer teams were the best of the best at provincials on March 13, as both clubs brought gold back to Prince Albert. The U19 9v9 girls won 3-2 in the final against QC United, while the U15 6v6 boys defeated Eastside Juventus 2-1 in their final.
“I’m extremely happy with the results, especially if you see the community,” Technical director Dragan Ivkovic said. “We are over 30,000 people, so if you compare us to similar communities like Moose Jaw or Lloydminster, we are doing an excellent job.”
Ivkovic added that with the successful showing at provincials, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in order to rebuild their teams for next season. COVID-19 threw a wrench into the structure of the soccer club, and they hope to have better numbers for registration.
“The results are actually better than the shape we are in currently,” he said. “We still need to rebuild the club after this COVID year, and I think we are in the right track. We are now in the middle of spring registration, and I estimate we will have maybe a little more than 1,000 kids involved, so that’s an amazing achievement.”
With restrictions lifted and COVID measures no longer in place in the province, Ivkovic is hopeful for a normal season for the first time since 2019.
“We are expecting an absolutely normal season because there are no limits now, and I hope it will stay this way. Last year we had about 500 kids involved, but remember they couldn’t play games. There was a different bubble and all this stuff, so now everything is normal and I really expect a full, normal season like we had in 2019—I can’t believe it’s two or three years ago.”
Registration open for the spring soccer program. You can register your child online at pasoccer.ca.
With files from Jason Kerr
@kyle_kosowan•sports@paherald.sk.ca
