Slave Lake soccer teams brought home a pile of hardware from an unusual tournament in Sherwood Park on the last weekend of May. It was unusual because three of the four games they played were not played at all.
“We went to shootouts because the county shut down the fields,” says U16 Boys Coach Jim Wood.
It was raining non-stop in the city and the County of Strathcona figured the sod would get wrecked if they allowed the games to continue. So instead of playing games, the teams lined up and fired wet balls at soaking wet goalies.
“We were disappointed,” says Wood. “But I guess it’s understandable.”
In shootouts the Slave Lake teams probably did better than they would have otherwise, on the whole. The U16 Boys won gold, as did the U14 Girls. Silver medals went to both the U16 Girls and the U12 Girls, while the U14 Boys won bronze.
The U16 Boys started with a 2 – 1 loss to Whitecourt on the field. Then they won three straight shootouts against Sherwood Park, Athabasca and Whitecourt for the gold.
The U14 Girls started with a 3 – 1 loss to the Sherwood Park Titans and then also won three straight shootouts.
“In shootouts it’s who can hit the net,” says Coach Kevin Morrison. “We have some very good shooters, we just have trouble getting them the ball (in regular play).”
The Boys U14 Green Machine also started with a loss – 4 – 0 to a Sherwood Park team. Then they lost one shootout 1 – 0 before winning 2 – 1 and 3 – 1.
Slave Lake teams were back in the city again this past weekend.

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