LABRADOR CITY, N.L. — Over the past few weeks, players from the Shriners Indoor Soccer Program selected to represent Happy Valley-Goose Bay at the Under 10’s All Star Tournament in Labrador City, had been training relentlessly in preparation for a big weekend of soccer.
The All-Star Tournament was played on the outdoor fields of the Lab West Soccer Association, which was made a little easier for participants as this year’s indoor program was played on the recently installed artificial turf surface, which helped in the transition from the indoor to outdoor matches.
This marked the second time the competing teams had played together — the first time was a few weeks back when they participated in the Junior Labrador Cup.
Under 10 Girls White Team coach Ronnie Elson told The Labradorian the weekend in Labrador City was a huge success, not only for the Happy Valley-Goose Bay athletes, but also for the way the event was organised, saying that the Lab West Soccer Association did a great job.
They started off with a fun day at the arena on Friday with obstacle courses, a soccer dribbling/passing course, some small side games, food and prizes.
Saturday was game day. This consisted of seven 39 games spread throughout the day. There was the traditional round robin games where every team had an opportunity to play against one another, a game against the parents and then jamboree games. The jamboree games were a mix of players from the Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Lab City teams mixed in with one another, where they got the chance to play against each other.
Elson said on Sunday the players were split into teams and participated in a skills competition involving hardest shots, ball control, strength and agility.
After the skills competition, all of the participating athletes were awarded their medals.
“They all seemed to have a good time and it was great to see all the smiles, considering their busy weekend,” said Elson.
This is just the beginning of the respective All-Star Tournaments with the Under 12, Under 14 and Under 17 Boys and Girls teams for each of the respective age groups making their way to Newfoundland to play in scheduled All Star Tournaments in August.
