Nelson U17 girls soccer team won gold at provincials<\/p>\n
Published 4:41 pm Friday, July 24, 2026<\/p>\n
The Nelson U17 girls soccer team won gold at the BC Soccer Provincial B Cup. <\/p>\n
Nelson played against UFC Okanagan on July 18 in Kamloops. <\/p>\n
This makes an incredible run for the team, after winning gold and silver medals over the last three years. <\/p>\n
\u201cGetting to win for a second time with the same group of people is the most special feeling ever. Our team has gotten so close,\u201d said Piper Kuran-Dowden, a player on the team. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a proud feeling to bring that home and to represent Nelson at that level,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
Kuran-Dowden has been playing soccer since she was 3 years-old and is now a coach for Nelson Soccer Association. <\/p>\n
She coaches players from U4 to U15 and says her view of the sport has changed since becoming a coach. <\/p>\n
\u201cI carry another sense of pride with me when I play now. It gives me a lot more appreciation for the game because I started at the same spot,\u201d Kuran-Dowden said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started at the same spot as those kids, so it has given me a deeper appreciation for soccer,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
Kuran-Dowden is not the only person in her family who is involved in the sport. Her mother, Cheryl Dowden is a coach on the team, along with Jen Moynes. <\/p>\n
Moynes started coaching the girls when they were in U10 and Dowden came on board when they advanced to U12.<\/p>\n
Dowden has watched the players mature as players, but also has human beings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are developing as young athletes, but are also developing incredible leadership skills. I really saw that in this tournament and I am so proud of them,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are a team that really supports each other.\u201d <\/p>\n
Since the team won three provincial medals, they have the ability to qualify to the BC A Cup, the highest level of provincial championships. <\/p>\n
Kuran-Dowden wants to continue playing the game and having soccer in her life post-graduation from high school next year. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am currently in the process of talking to a few schools for university recruitment. I just want to play soccer for as long as I can.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nelson U17 girls soccer team won gold at provincials Published 4:41 pm Friday, July 24, 2026 The Nelson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,249267,561,82],"class_list":["post-824240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-kootenay","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824240","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=824240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}