The Yorkton Regional High School boys soccer team has had a successful and eventful season which has culminated in a provincial silver medal this past weekend in Regina.
Coach Steven DeLong and his squad took on Regina’s Winston Knoll Collegiate on Friday morning and advanced to the next stage with a 4-3 victory. Friday afternoon, YRHS met Saskatoon’s top-ranked high school team, Evan Hardy and advanced to the gold medal game with a decisive 3-0 shutout. Saturday, the Raider Soccer team challenged Regina’s Campbell Collegiate. YRHS lost a tough match 4-0 to bring home the Provincial 3A Boys Soccer Silver.
Since last spring, Coach DeLong and his team had their sights set on success at the provincial tournament.
The had had applied to SEVEC, a federal student exchange program, and had been accepted to travel to Newfoundland to be billeted with high school soccer players from St. John’s and compete in a local tournament and have some exhibition games. When the Newfoundland high school was not able to continue in the exchange and two other high schools tried but were not able to participate in the exchange, Coach DeLong called a Cranbrook, British Columbia high school on a whim and arranged for the team to travel there and get some much-needed game experience to prepare for Provincials.
While in Cranbrook, the boys came up on the losing side of five games and won one match, but they got to know one another as teammates and friends. It was a great team-building experience which has allowed the team to gel and improve.
The Raider boys soccer team also competed in this fall’s Sacred Heart tournament. The final game was postponed due to wet field conditions until last week where the Raiders came out on top to win first place.
