Hanover Soccer Club still seeing growth

Participation at the Hanover Soccer Club continues to rise, club chair Brian Froese reported this week.

Froese is in his second year of running the club after long-time chair Norm Anderson retired last year. The transition includes a newer board than in years previous, but Froese said the new faces have stepped up.

“Last year was an act of trying to keep our heads above water, this year was an act of trying to bolster the numbers on our board,” Froese said.

“Now that the dust can settle on all of the organizational aspects that take place just getting the programming going, as a board we’re looking forward to the summer.”

The board is planning on spending the summer taking a close look at how they can better serve a still-growing soccer community.

“Soccer has become that go-to (sport),” Froese said.

“It’s become that ‘what can my child do for playing this year?’ Soccer is one of the first things that comes to mind, where maybe 15, 20 years ago it wasn’t the first thing.”

Immigration into the community has also helped, with German and Ukrainian transplants starting families and putting their kids into sports.

The club has entered seven teams into the Winnipeg Youth Soccer League, which provides a higher level of competition for players at young ages compared to community programming. The club even has a U15 premier team this season.

Froese was quick to point to the success of the Performance Soccer Academy, a program run by Steve Rebizant, who also coaches the Steinbach Regional boys team.

“The growth into the Winnipeg league has a lot to do with Steve’s program,” Froese said, fresh off reffing a soccer game at a tournament SRSS hosted May 16.

“We’re very grateful for the continued support we get from that side of it.”

Froese said it’s still a challenge for any elite rural Manitoba player to find a path to the professional or even semi-professional or high-level collegiate ranks, but pointed to the establishment of the Canadian Premier League and more teams playing in premier development leagues in Winnipeg as good steps forward.

Steinbach boasts maybe the best outdoor soccer facilities in the province, with multiple quality grass fields. Froese gave credit to the city for not only investing money into the Steinbach Soccer Park, but also ensuring their staff has the know-how to make the facility’s grass good for soccer.

“Every year we have new parents coming out here and every year I hear comments like ‘wow you guys have such an amazing facility,’” Froese said.

“They’re amazed at how incredible our fields are… The exciting part is the fact that we’re now starting to see the fruits of the labour of developing from younger years.”

The park will once again host a camp for Valencia CF, a top-flight Spanish team which is looking to invest in Canada. The camp attracted players from not only across Manitoba, but from neighbouring municipalities, with some even earning an invite to the larger Valencia campus in Montreal.

“Frankly, we were elated with the numbers and probably a little surprised and I think they were absolutely blown away by the numbers,” Froese said.

Behind the scenes work is also continuing as the soccer community advocates for a large indoor facility for the region.

“Nothing concrete but from the, shall we say, rumblings that I’m hearing, there is definitely forward movement and positive conversations happening,” Froese said.

“I don’t want to say that we’re any closer than we’ve ever been. I think the encouraging part is now that we have the large event centre (built), we can all take our mind off of that, nobody has to think about that anymore. Hopefully more attention can be focused on the needs the soccer community has in the Southeast.”

In the adult Manitoba Major Soccer League, the club has three teams playing this year, with the Hanover Kickers in Division 2 after getting relegated last season. The Hanover Sting and Hanover Strikers play in separate conferences of an expanded third division.

The Niverville Force are playing in the first division, one step below the top division and Landmark FC plays in the fifth division. Games in the MMSL have only been scheduled through May.