The Morden Eagles Female Soccer programs are ready for another season and manager Tania Sigurdson is ready to get back out onto the pitch.
"Super pumped," Sigurdson says with excitement. "Very happy to see the fields so far are pretty dry, and hopefully that means we can get out a bit sooner. Currently, we are still running our winter training program indoors at the Winkler Meridian Exhibition Centre, so we're still quite busy with indoor training, but we're certainly excited to get back onto the pitch."
Reflecting on the history of the program, Sigurdson recalls the connection that got it all started. "We've been running a couple of years now. Our head coach Claes Aschberg and I met a number of years ago when our daughters were playing soccer. Claes' daughter Maiya is one year older than my girl Jordan, and we were really struggling for a place for young female soccer athletes to play. I have a son that could play in Winkler and play at a premier level out of the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association. For females, it was either mixed or they didn't have a place to play in the Pembina Valley. Our daughters are adults now and playing rec, but we've stayed committed to trying to create opportunities for our female soccer athletes."
Having it cover a large area is also a point of pride for Sigurdson. "We draw for our program, from Carman, Altona, Winkler, Morden, and all the RM's. It brings the girls together to create opportunities for them to stay active, stay together in the communities, and it's quite amazing when the girls break off into their high school teams from all over the region, they've stayed friends. The first year we started to enter in the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association with a U17 team, we had girls from grade 8, grade 9, grade 10, grade 11 and grade 12, all playing together just so we had enough to make a team. We had an awesome time. Morden Minor Soccer Association was looking to join with the Manitoba Soccer Association, and when they did that, we looped under their umbrella, which was an amazing opportunity. It's a lot of work to be associated with the Manitoba Soccer Association, but we really appreciate that the Morden Minor Soccer Association did that step, it's just opened so many doors for our men's and women's athletes from our region."
Thanks to the the outpouring of demand from the community, the U17 program isn't the only option, Sigurdson is thrilled that they're going to be launching a U14 program. "We're so excited to offer this age, they'll compete in the rec program at the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association. That team is a multi-community program, so we're looking for female athletes that are 12, 13 or 14, grades 7 or 8 age, we're looking to put that team together and we still have a couple spots on that roster. We don't do tryouts for that team, we're accessible, we try to make sure our costs are accessible and our team is accessible to all players. Very excited to launch that this year. As research says, our athletes sometimes drop out of the sport in grades 6, 7 and 8. We're really keen to close that gap, keep them training, keep them interested, keep them developing those skills that lead them into the other programs. We want them to stay active and keep making those lifelong friendships."
The positive outpouring of support means a lot to Sigurdson and the support of the communities from all over means the world to those involved. "I'm not originally from the Pembina Valley, I moved here when my kids were small, and this is an incredibly supportive community to grow up in. I'm very happy to have my kids grow up here. The parents are always coming out to cheer. We've posted fun scrimmages with larger teams, with college teams in the past, and the community comes out to watch. The community recognizes that kids who are engaged, getting off their screens and come out and play, it's worth it. We also do pretty well on the pitch, our girls in Winnipeg, our U17 girls won the Boston Pizza Cup, they won the whole league for our level. So, we do well and the Pembina Valley produces some fantastic people."
More details on Morden Minor Soccer and the Morden Eagles Female programs can be found at Morden Minor Soccer Association : Website by RAMP InterActive.