New era begins at Hanover Soccer Club

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This article was published 03/05/2024 (370 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the first time in over two decades, the Hanover Soccer Club will not be led by Norm Anderson.

Anderson, who helped found the club in the early 2000s, is stepping down from his role as chair of the Hanover Soccer Club board, handing the reigns to Brian Froese.

Froese is a good choice for the role, being involved as a coach, player, volunteer and board member throughout nearly the entire club’s existence, but said he needed to be convinced to sign up, noting he expected to leave the program after his kids stopped playing soccer.

“I felt I sort of did my duty, and walked away and had no intention of ever coming back,” Froese said, laughing.

A big part of the recruitment process came with Froese re-joining the competitive ranks as a player. After taking a couple years away from the game, Froese was a mainstay with the Hanover Strikers, and oftentimes substituted for the Anderson-coached Hanover Kickers throughout last season.

During those games, Froese said got a chance to hang out with Anderson again, and was convinced to take on the chair role.

“I can only imagine the struggle (Anderson) was facing, in trying to identify or determine or think about who could step into that role,” Froese said.

“I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t really want to jump back into the fray. I was pretty happy right where I was. I took a little bit of time, and considered my options, whether it really was something I wanted to do.”

After talking it over with friends, Froese made the choice to return to the club board as chair.

“Ultimately I decided I was going to do it, and now I’m asking myself why I did,” he said, laughing.

“Part of the problem is I inherited a board that was roughly half the size (it should be). It’s been challenging to find individuals to fill the roles. I still don’t have them filled… For any part that’s not covered, it falls on the rest of the board.”

While there are a couple new faces on the board, Froese is still looking to find a equipment coordinator, referee coordinator, secretary and treasurer.

“Once the programming begins, it goes pretty quick,” he said.

“I think all the pieces are falling into place, albeit last-minute, but they’re falling into place. I think in one, maybe two weeks we’ll all be able to take a bit of a deep breath.”

Once the club stabilizes, Froese said he hopes to reach out to stakeholders throughout the club and region to see what changes could be made to the club to build bridges with others across the southeast.

“What is it going to take to connect better with the diverse demographic that we’ve got?” Froese asked.

“What is it going to take to build a stronger relationship with the surrounding communities… I feel right now we’re looked at as the big bad wolf, ‘oh, that’s Steinbach, we don’t want anything to do with Steinbach, we’re going to hold onto our players, we’re going to do our own thing.’ Does it have to be that way? I don’t think so.”

Froese is optimistic about the future of both the club and soccer in Canada, noting plans to bring an indoor facility to Steinbach are continuing in the background.

“From what I can tell you, we feel more optimistic than ever before that we’re closer to something big coming around the corner,” he said, noting the project was in too early of stages to share anything more.

“One of the first things that needs to happen is we need to get one of the local municipal bodies on our side. Steinbach has historically been very standoffish, so we’ve started to look abroad.”

Froese added that the club has quotations in place and construction plans partially done so if and when funding is secured, they will be able to move into the construction phase quickly.

Registration at the club continues to be strong, with Froese thanking Anderson and Ashley Priest for staying involved through the spring to help out for his first year. Over 400 kids are registered to play in the club’s programs, and four men’s adult teams will play throughout the tiers of the Manitoba Major Soccer League (MMSL) this season.

The top team remains the Hanover Kickers, who are continuing to rebuild after suspending play during COVID-19. They play in the first division of the MMSL, one tier below the premier division. Anderson also served as the Kickers’ coach, and will also be stepping away from that role, with Andreas Bergen heading up the team this year.

It was a tough year on the pitch last year for the team, which finished at the bottom of the division one standings. The team’s season begins May 6 with an away game.

Froese said he hopes to bring more people out to watch MMSL games in Steinbach, especially the kickers.

“We have a completely new group forming (with) a lot of young guys coming on board,” Froese said, noting the team found success at a pre-season tournament.

“It’s looking very positive.”