It was a weird way to finish a tournament for Rupert’s U15 rep soccer team, but when you live 22 hours away from where the final game is, and parents have to work, sometimes that’s just what happens.
The team made it to the final of Nelson’s Terry Walgren Memorial Tournament last weekend. Unfortunately, they did not get the chance to compete for the trophy.
“We ended up deferring the final. It would have left us in town until 7 p.m. at night, and we had to travel 12 hours to make it to Quesnel. We drove the next day back to Rupert from Quesnel, which took us another 10 hours. It was a lot of driving for three games but we got to see some decent teams. It was good,” said coach Gordon Armstrong.
Rupert opened up the tournament with a 3-0 win, then tied 3-3, and lost to the eventual champions 4-2 in their last round robin game.
“We went down with 14 players, and when the sun came out, it near killed some of the kids,” Gordon added jokingly. “We were missing three of our five backs, from the 18 players we normally carry. It’s not too bad when you spread it out over the team, but the team played very well. The boys did a great job moving the ball. Brendan Eshem, took control of everyone on the back line.”
