The Valley United Soccer Club’s (VUSC) U19 Fusion along with Warman’s Nate Healey are nominees for top awards within the Saskatchewan Soccer Association (SSA).
The U19 Fusion is a finalist for the Soccer for Life Team of the Year Award, while Healey is in contention for the Male Youth Player of the Year Award.
All nominees and recipients for the 2020 SSA technical and recognition awards were announced March 10, and they will be honoured during the annual ceremony on March 31.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines, it will be a virtual ceremony, for the second year in a row, which will be streamed through Facebook Live. The live feed will start at 7 p.m.
The U19 Fusion is being recognized for its outstanding 2019-2020 indoor soccer season.
Robert Noel, who was the head coach of the team that season, is excited that the boys are being acknowledged for this award.
“It feels really good. It’s a culmination of the effort the boys had put in over the years and the commitment to each other,” he said.
The U19 Fusion consisted of players between the ages of 14 and 18 and despite the age gap, Noel said the team played very well together, which led to the team winning a provincial title during the indoor soccer season.
“I really appreciated how the boys worked together and supported each other. They understood there are different talents amongst them and they just supported that throughout the whole season,” he said.
Team performance is one of the areas that is evaluated when being chosen for this award, and Noel believes that the Fusion winning the 2020 U19 9v9 Indoor Soccer Provincial Championship played a huge part in the team being named a finalist.
A lot of the U19 teams during the regular season and provincial tournament consisted of 17 and 18-year olds, whereas the Fusion only had one 18-year-old. And defeating a veteran Moose Jaw team to become provincial champions was quite the feat for this young team.
“They (Moose Jaw) were very strong, well trained, very mature, and I don’t think they had many players under 17,” said Noel. So to compete against a very strong team and win, that shows how the boys pulled together.”
There are a group of players on the team that Noel had coached since the U12 division and seeing them develop into the young men and soccer players they are today is what has meant the most to him.
Along with the Fusion, FC Regina’s U17 Girls Bluestars is also in contention for the award.
Healey, who was also a member of that U19 Fusion team didn’t expect to be one of the two nominees for the Male Youth Player of the Year Award.
“It was kind of surprising, honestly, but, I’m very honoured that I was nominated for it and I’m grateful to be recognized,” he said.
The 17-year-old is the goalkeeper for the U19 Fusion and one of his soccer accolades in 2020 was being named MVP for the U19 indoor soccer provincial tournament.
“I also got asked to play on the futsal team that was going to go to nationals, but that got cut out by COVID-19,” he said.
Soccer is a huge part of Healey’s life, as he has been playing the sport since he was five years old. He has also as been playing competitive soccer for VUSC since he was 12 years old, and it wasn’t until four years ago he made that transition to being a full time goalkeeper.
Along with the success of a player, dedication is also a factor that goes into choosing a recipient for this award and even after he ages out of youth soccer, Healey still wants to play the sport.
“I still have one more year with Valley United, but yeah, I do want to keep pursuing it and I’ll see where the future takes me,” he said.
Past recipients of the Male Youth player of the Year award have been from Regina or Saskatoon, but to be recognized while playing soccer in a smaller community means a lot to Healey.
“It’s cool that I’m not from one of the big cities and I’m still able to be recognized,” he said.
If Healey doesn’t get selected for the award, he believes that it is still a huge accomplishment to even be considered a finalist, since it’s something that is open to all youth who play competitive soccer in the province.