LAC LA BICHE - The Alberta Colleges Athletic Association (ACAC) soccer season officially wrapped up for all teams at the end of October, with the championship playoffs taking place in Grand Prairie.
After a weekend of play that saw the top three teams from the North and the South divisions competing, the Concordia University Thunder were named as the league champion women’s team, while the NAIT Ooks took gold on the men's side.
The Portage College men's and women's teams didn’t make it to the playoff round, with both teams finishing their regular season almost two weeks ago. The Portage College men finished the season in sixth place in the seven-team ACAC North Division, while the women finished in seventh place.
Despite the final standings, the student athletes learned lessons through the season that will help them moving forward, says Macky Singh, head coach of both teams.
He says while it was a tough season, the teams showed perseverance and growth. For the men, scoreboards and the standings do not necessarily show just how much the team has improved.
The Voyageur men's team won only two games of the 12 they played in the season, but many of the scores were within one or two goals. Singh is pleased with the team’s overall performance and ability to be competitive in the league.
The Portage women's team didn't manage a single goal in any of the 12 games they played through the season, but the players did not lose focus and kept their heads up, said the coach.
“It was a challenging season, however the female athletes were excellent in terms of attitude and their pride to play their best for the Portage College Voyageurs,” Singh told Lakeland This Week.
Looking ahead, in a bid to rebuild and prepare the Voyageurs for the 2025 season, Singh said coaching staff are now on the lookout to bring in more players for both rosters.
Coaching staff are recruiting three to four players for the men’s side to strengthen the team and provide depth to the squad.
For the women’s soccer program, efforts are being made to recruit several players to ensure that when the outdoor team hits the pitch in September, it will be competitive with an 18 to 20 player roster.
As far as the lessons that were learned from this season for both the men’s and women’s squads, Singh said with the women, fitness is a key factor and is something that coaching staff are going to address next year.
As for the men, he stated that with an inexperienced team, slipups tend to be capitalized by the opposition.
“With inexperience come mistakes and how we react to it quickly is something we will look to improve,” he said. “We will be better prepared next year as the team will be together for their second year, gaining more experience.”
Now that the outdoor soccer season has ended, many members of the Portage College Voyageurs men’s and women’s squads will be getting ready to head indoors to play futsal.
According to the head coach, players begin training for futsal on Nov. 12. The season gets underway in January and runs until March. Portage College will be hosting the North Division ACAC Futsal qualifiers from Jan. 17-19.
Singh stated the officials are currently analyzing the futsal roster and will have a better idea of how many players from the soccer squads will be playing futsal.