Outdoor soccer season ends with Stinger Cup tourney

August 29, 2013 · 0 Comments

By Jeff Doner

The Aurora Youth Soccer Club held its annual Stinger Cup tournament to mark the end of yet another successful season for its ever growing house league.

Throughout the weekend, 240 teams of all ages went head-to-head at Sheppard’s Bush, each with the goal of winning their division.

AYSC house league and volunteer coordinator, Sandy Porter, said the weekend couldn’t have gone any better.

“The tournament went off without a hitch and it was just a beautiful way to cap the season,” she said.

“The tournament was fantastic and the weather was amazing. This summer has been very wet and we’ve had a lot of cancellations because of rain and closed fields, so we were thrilled that the weather was so good to us.”

It wasn’t until the very last game of the tournament between the girls U12 Sky Blue and Purple teams that the rain came out. But the game was still played, ending in a 2 – 0 win for Sky Blue to become champions of their division.

Maureen Sullivan, coach of the Sky Blue team, said she was proud of her team during another solid season of house league play.

“We won the semi-final match in a penalty kick shootout, that was a nail biter, but it was good,” she said. “The season was also good, we came in second overall and now this is championship game where we’re playing the team that came in first overall. It’s kind of neat that it turned out with one and two in the final.”

Even though she has coached for five years, Sullivan said it was her first time at the Stinger’s Cup and only had good things to say about the tournament.

“It’s great. It’s good to see all the teams, it’s a lot of fun and the kids love it and have become good friends,” she said.

“Every year the teams get mixed up, so every year the groups are different, but in the end after four of five years of playing they’ll know mostly all of the kids.”

Player Emma Barber on the Sky Blue team said she always looks forward to the weekend event.

“It’s exciting because since the teams get mixed up every year, we play against our friends from the years before and it’s kind of like a rivalry and a big competition, but in the end everyone is very sportsmanlike and all happy with the outcomes,” she said with a smile.

Barber said this was the furthest one of her teams has made it in the tournament and spoke about her current team very highly.

“It feels really good. I’m proud of everyone and my teammates played really well and they had good passes and everything. We also shot a lot, so that was good,” she said.

“You always play with different players, so I’ve made a lot of good friendships, so we all play really well together.”

Even though the tournament marks the end of the summer house league, Porter said there is still plenty of soccer going on in Aurora through to the end of September.

“We are now full steam ahead to get ready for our indoor season that starts on the first weekend of October,” she said.

In the meantime, the competitive leagues still run until the end of the month and the AYSC is also holding its All-Star weekend on September 14 and 15, which currently has 116 teams signed up to participate from all over Canada and even some from the US.
“There’s lots of soccer to go before we call it a season,” Porter said.

For more information on programs and the AYSC, visit www.aysc.ca