Soccer park earns praise from high schools after provincials

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This article was published 13/06/2023 (1074 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the Steinbach Regional Secondary School (SRSS) Sabres may have come up empty at the provincials they hosted, but that doesn’t mean the city didn’t come away with accolades.

The two winning teams at the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association (MHSAA) AAAA soccer provincials were impressed with the facilities the host school provided. Eight of the top girls and boys soccer teams made the trip to Steinbach for the tournament, which was hosted at the soccer park June 2/3.

Bryan Thiessen, a teacher at SRSS, worked to ensure the tournament was a success, even if the Sabres came up empty-handed. This is the first time the MHSAA top soccer tournament has been hosted in Steinbach.

“It was a treat for the kids from the city to come and see what we can offer out here,” Thiessen said.

“We’ve got a warm-up field, four fields at full length, that are beautifully manicured and irrigated. It’s just an awesome setting for them.”

It was a battle for every team to stay fresh throughout the tournament, with temperatures reaching as high as 33 C on both Friday and Saturday.

Each team played a single elimination bracket, with top-ranked Glenboro winning the boys’ banner and Vincent Massey (Winnipeg) winning the girls’.

The Vincent Massey Trojans came away with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Balmoral Hall in the girls’ final. Twice the Trojans took one goal leads, only to have the underdog Blazers storm back to tie the game, before finally scoring a late go-ahead goal that would stand up as the difference.

It’s Vincent Massey’s second consecutive AAAA girls’ soccer provincial championship.

“We could not be more proud of these ladies,” Vincent Massey coach Megan Maxfield said, noting that the school is graduating six players who will be playing university soccer across Canada next season.

Maxfield added the key for her team was keeping substitutions short and letting players rest through the scorching heat, and had praise for how well the fields stood up to the conditions.

“This is honestly one of the nicest fields we’ve played on throughout the league,” she said.

“The grass is kept nicely cut, the lines are beautiful… We do have some things like this, but at the high school level we don’t get to play on fields like this.”

The Glenboro Lions cruised to a boys’ championship, not conceding a single goal in four wins en route to the banner. The Lions beat West Kildonan 2-0 in the final.

“I got a really good group of guys,” second-year coach Josh Hillstrom said. Hillstrom started coaching the team as soon as he graduated from Glenlawn.

“I always had good coaches when I was here, and hopefully I’m doing a little bit of the same for them.”

The Lions looked a step ahead of the competition throughout the tournament, playing with patience, and working the ball to dangerous areas while dominating possession.

“We have a really elite group of guys, down to our 20th guy on the bench,” Hillstrom said.

“Everyone can go out there and do anything I ask of them, or anything they’re working on together. We take control of games, we go out there, we perform, we execute really well. They did what I asked of them and even more.”

Hillstrom had similar praise for the facilities in Steinbach, noting it was rare to get to play on quality grass fields at the high school level.

“I remember our first day when we came here, we saw the nice grass fields, the good length, it was really nice,” he said.

“And we had really nice days to on top of that.”

The SRSS boys tournament may have hinged on their opening round game against eventually finalists West Kildonan. The Sabres held a 2-1 lead in the final two minutes of regulation, but gave up a set piece goal, and would eventually fall in penalties.

“I thought they played phenomenal,” Thiessen said.

“Even in the consolation semi-final, they played Fort Richmond who was a consensus top-two team coming in here, and they played them well right to the end and lost by one.”

The girls team looked more over-matched than the boys, dropping two games 9-0. The team was in tough facing off against eventual champions Vincent Massey in the first round.

“The girls came out and gave a great effort as well,” Thiessen said.

“(They had) awesome attitudes, they represented our school really well.”

Soccer at SRSS has turned into a year-round sport, with the school playing a Zone 13 schedule in the fall, a winter indoor schedule, and a spring AAAA games.