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After years of hard work and dedication, things are really starting to escalate for Morden Minor Soccer as more opportunities for players have those around the programs very excited.
Technical Director Samuel Jerema shares the details on the growth of soccer in Morden. "This season is really special for us, it's the first year our competitive team is heading into the Premier League in the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association. We've been building momentum over the past couple of years and our first league games are in Winnipeg this weekend for the U13 boys premier team, which is really exciting, for sure."
A lot of work has gone into this moment, as Jerema explains. "A number of years ago, Daniel Rocha and I, we were trying to find a way to get our soccer development to the next level and we went after a Quality Soccer Provider certification with Soccer Canada and Manitoba Soccer Association. That's the sports governing body ensuring we're offering quality soccer programs to youth, the coaches go through volunteer screening and we can offer all the best things possible and be affiliated with those programs. Since then, we've put a lot of energy into our development programs. We have for this season coming up, 100 kids that are registered for the U4-U7 programs, they filled up really quick. We have over 200 kids every August/September that are part of our programs and parents have been asking for more development opportunities. Especially in this area, baseball and hockey have more defined pathways. Soccer is more grassroots, but not well defined. If you really want to play soccer, where do you go and how do you get to the highest levels? This year is a culmination of three or four years of very hard work that we've put into developing players and coaches and coming to the place where we can be competitive with the top teams in the province. Parent's have been 100% behind us and there's a lot of energy going into this year."
With the high numbers and pushing for more, there are challenges that come with it, according to Jerema. "With all the success, it brings excitement and then more kids want to be a part of it. Coaching is a limiting factor. This year, we have two competitive teams, U13 Premier 1 and U13 Premier 2 for the boys. We also have girls programming in place at the U17 and U18 level, plus they're growing and adding a U14 team. There are some gaps in our programming because we don't have the coaches in place to offer competitive options for young athletes. We're doing the best job we can given all the sports the kids are involved in, we embrace all of them and try and get them involved in our sport. That next step is getting those dedicated, trained coaches that want to get involved. We'd love to have U10 and U8 teams looking to be competitive. For sure, coaching is one thing we need."
There's a bigger need that will have a far bigger impact, says Jerema. "Infrastructure," he says emphatically. "That's a longer term goal, where we need space in Morden to have our own fields. To really grow our program, we need dedicated soccer pitches that are well maintained, soccer goals and all that expensive capitol is something that our community needs next to really grow the program."
For anyone that wants to learn more about being a coach or getting involved, Jerema says it's very easy. "They can go to our website or send us an email to MordenMinorSoccer.com, especially if they're looking to get involved in coaching, we have really well defined tutorials, links to all the training, respect in sport links, every link we can send to anyone who's looking forward to taking the next step. If someone is thinking that down the road their kid might love soccer and they want to get ahead of things and start doing the training, it's really inexpensive and we support all of that. If there's cost of the online training modules, we'll reimburse the coaches for the expenses. Go to our website and we'll get any information into your hands that you need."
Jerema adds there's specific ages they want to get onto the field next. "For sure, if you have kids in the grade three to five age range and they want to get going in competitive soccer, that's the age group we really want to get going next."