Last year, they did not have enough players to field a team. But this year — with an abundance of bodies as well as a strong core that will be back next season — the Brookswood Bobcats are off to the provincial senior boys AA soccer championships.
“It is a special team this year,” said Jim Pratt, who shares coaching duties alongside another parent, Martin Buehler.
The pair have coached the majority of the Brookswood team at both the high school level and with some of the players, since they were at the U7 level in the Langley United program.
The ’Cats fielded a team of 25 this past season, which includes a good mix of Grade 11 and 12s, and a few others in Grades 8 to 10. There is also about eight or nine international students on the roster.
What stands out about this team is its depth and skill level.
“What often happens in high school soccer is that you have five or six really good players and then a drop off after that,” Pratt explained.
“So you put your strong players — even if they are strikers — along the back-line or something. We have the flexibility this year where we have 13 or 15 good solid players and we can play people in the positions that they do best.”
And the ’Cats have come through, qualifying for the provincial championships thanks to a second-place finish at the Fraser Valley championships earlier this month.
It is the first time in at least eight years Brookswood has qualified.
The Bobcats were seeded fourth for the Fraser Valleys after finishing second in their division at but upset the top-seed Abbotsford Traditional squad 5-0. This came on the heels of another impressive offensive output, 7-2 over St. John Brebeuf in the quarter-finals.
In the Fraser Valley finals on Nov. 6, Brookswood lost to the No. 3 Archbishop Carney Stars 3-0.
Brookswood has lost just three times this season and all three times it has been the Stars who handed them the defeat.
“We are hoping to meet them one more time at provincials,” Pratt said.
The 16-team provincial championships run Nov. 17 to 19 at the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex,
Brookswood is in a pool with David Thompson, Duchess Park and Brooks.
The winners of the four pools advance to the semifinals.
“If we finish in the top eight, that is great,” Pratt said.
“But I think we have the ability to finish top four and maybe even medal.”
