[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nThe David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) senior\u00a0boys\u00a0soccer team won the\u00a0Kootenay\/Boundary zone championship this year on home turf in a dramatic penalty shootout.<\/p>\n
The win was the culmination of two months of training for the DTSS boys, who\u00a0participated\u00a0in several tournaments throughout September and October. Their strong results in those tournaments meant they headed into the championship as the top-ranked single A\u00a0boys\u00a0team in the zone (single A schools are those with the smallest student populations).<\/p>\n
By coincidental luck, it was Invermere\u2019s turn to host the tournament this season (hosting rights rotate each year), so the DTSS boys played in front of a hometown\u00a0crowd\u00a0and they easily dispatched fourth-ranked Golden Secondary School (GSS) in the semifinal. But in the\u00a0final\u00a0they came up against a tough opponent in second-ranked Fernie Secondary School (FSS), and the match became a back-and-forth tussle.<\/p>\n
Plenty of\u00a0supporters\u00a0came out to line the field and cheer on the DTSS boys in the see-saw match.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were quite a lot of fans. It was a great atmosphere,\u201d DTSS boys coach Ryan Stimming told the Pioneer.<\/p>\n
One team would take the lead, only for the other to claw back an equalizer. At the end of regulation time, the score was 2-2. After extra time, the two sides were still level, so the game came down to penalty\u00a0shots to decide a champion.<\/p>\n
Stimming had a trick up his sleeve, sending in Findlay Whittick as goalkeeper specifically for the shootout.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Findlay\u00a0had lined\u00a0up an outfield player\u00a0for the majority of the\u00a0final, but\u00a0also has talent as a shot-stopper and the coach had a hunch Findlay could make a difference when it came to penalties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do ask a lot of him (Findlay),\u201d said Stimming with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
The shootout began, but still FSS and DTSS could not be separated. Both teams scored each of their first four penalties. A FSS player stepped up to take his team\u2019s last penalty shot. He slotted the ball low and to the left. But Findlay correctly\u00a0anticipated\u00a0where the player planned to shoot, dove to his right and made a huge save.<\/p>\n
Now it was time for DTSS\u2019s final penalty shot. Findlay was scheduled as DTSS\u2019s fifth penalty taker, so switching roles once again, he strode out of the net, placed the ball on the penalty spot, stepped back and then lasered his shot into the back of the net, earning DTSS a 5-4 win in the shootout and zone championship along with it.<\/p>\n
The spectators and fans on the sidelines erupted and \u201ceveryone stormed onto the field to celebrate,\u201d said Stimming.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0boys\u00a0championship\u00a0makes a clean Kootenay sweep this calendar year for DTSS when it comes to soccer, as the DTSS girls team won the 2025 Kootenay\/Boundary\u00a0zone\u00a0championship this past spring.<\/p>\n
Having won the Kootenay\/Boundary zone,\u00a0the\u00a0DTSS\u00a0boys\u00a0team headed to provincials held in Burnaby from\u00a0Wednesday, Nov. 5 to Friday, Nov.\u00a07. Last week and this week,\u00a0team members have been trying to raise funds to cover the\u00a0roughly $10,000\u00a0in travel and competition\u00a0expenses\u00a0incurred going to provincials.<\/p>\n
Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference, outlined Stimming.\u00a0To support the team, please email\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0for donation details.<\/p>\nStimming noted that although the DTSS boys have been training together for just under two months, most of them have known each other and been teammates through the\u00a0Columbia Valley Youth Soccer Association (CVYS), which he feels plays a vital role in developing local soccer talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He pointed out that CVYS also provides equipment, storage, and access to professional training clinics led by CVYS\u00a0technical director Tom Smith for DTSS. Other support for the team came from Panorama Mountain Resort and Jaybird Media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Steve Hubrecht\u00a0 [email\u00a0protected]\u00a0 The David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) senior\u00a0boys\u00a0soccer team won the\u00a0Kootenay\/Boundary zone championship this year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,556,47852,123155,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-267568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-championship","11":"tag-dtss","12":"tag-provincials","13":"tag-soccer","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}