The game of soccer is growing in Prince Albert and one of the major people behind it will remain involved for the long term.
Dragutin Ivkovic will be the technical director of the Prince Albert Youth Soccer Association (PAYSA) for the foreseeable future after renewing his contract for another five years, the organization announced on Wednesday.
“PAYSA is very excited to extend (the) contract of our Technical Director Dragutin (Dragan) Ivkovic for a few more years. He has been an asset and successful in helping us achieve the highest level of soccer for our Club in the Province.” President of PAYSA Nnamdi Ndubuka said in a press release.
Ivkovic has been the technical director for PAYSA for the past eight years and is originally from Serbia.
Ivkovic says he was humbled to get the opportunity to continue serving as PAYSA technical director.
“Honestly, I see that as a recognition for everything I did in the past year and for showing the effort with me and all the soccer families, players, First Nations, sport directors, and the board that we built the biggest soccer club in the province.”
During the indoor season, PAYSA had more than 900 athletes competing across all levels. In the upcoming outdoor season, Ivkovic is expecting more than 1,000 athletes to be playing soccer. He says he would like to see soccer continue to grow in the Prince Albert community.
“Moving forward, we would like to keep the same numbers as we have now and try to improve our Celtic level, that’s our highest competitive level to be able to compete on the divisional level with all the other clubs in the province. We are doing so well for now but the biggest challenge is to keep that level. It’s much harder to stay on that level than to reach it.”
Ivkovic credits a lot of the success PAYSA has experience to every member who has contributed time to the organization.
“I really think we all did a good job, not me, this is teamwork and definitely cannot be done without all support from my coaches and my board. Building a good program attracts the kids. We made the biggest soccer club in the province, so that’s a huge achievement for the community size of Prince Albert.”
PAYSA is still accepting registrations for the upcoming outdoor season
sports@paherald.sk.ca
