The philosophical rift that tore the city\u2019s youth soccer community apart \u2014 and sent the number of registered players into a sharp decline \u2014 has been healed.<\/p>\n
After years of in-fighting that, in 2018, led a group of disgruntled parents to split from the Prince George Youth Soccer Association to form Northern United FC \u2013 Youth Soccer, the two sides have merged.<\/p>\n
PGYSA has returned as the single overseer of youth soccer programs in the city, and the number of kids playing the beautiful game reached nearly 1,300 this summer.<\/p>\n
Ryan Beer, the newly elected PGYSA president, moved up last December from the vice-president\u2019s position to take over the reins of what has traditionally been the largest youth sports organization in Prince George. He\u2019s intent on maintaining that steady growth to keep those numbers healthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think things have changed a lot, with people from the different clubs getting to know each other. Some time has passed and people were just like, \u2018You know what, it would be better for the kids if we just got together,\u2019\u201d said Beer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conversations between us and Northern United were awesome, and now that they\u2019ve come across and we\u2019re working together in the same club, a lot of their coaches have come over and a lot of them are volunteering \u2014 some as team managers \u2014 and it\u2019s been really good so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northern United\u2019s board voted in February to merge with PGYSA, and it officially happened in April, just before the outdoor season began.<\/p>\n
Considering the bad blood that used to exist, Beer said the current PGYSA board members are extremely conscious about responding to issues put forward by parents, coaches and managers, and that has helped the two sides put aside their differences.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen two clubs come together, people have questions and concerns. I find if you listen to people and they feel heard \u2014 and you actually take the things they say seriously and try to work together and have good conversations \u2014 you can usually work it out, and that\u2019s what\u2019s been happening since we\u2019ve come together,\u201d said Beer.<\/p>\n
At its height in the early 2000s, PGYSA had more than 3,100 registered players. That dropped to between 500 and 600 in the first few years of Northern United\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re just shy of 1,300 now, and our goal is to find creative, innovative ways to get kids interested in playing the game again,\u201d Beer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want to come where there\u2019s a positive culture, and I think now that the culture is positive, people want their kids involved in something where the kids are having a good time. Anytime an environment has underlying tension, it makes it challenging for people to want to stay involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having been a PGYSA board member since 2022, Beer assumed the presidential duties from Chris Branigan in December 2024. He\u2019s coached in the league since 2014, starting when his boys were young, and has been a rep team coach for the past five years. This year, he coached the U16 and U18 boys.<\/p>\n
He says his main ambition at the helm of PGYSA is to keep the game as accessible as possible so any kid who wants to play has that opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see the city becoming more multicultural, and I want this to be a place where everybody feels like they belong and they\u2019re welcomed,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not just developing soccer, but we also want people in this club to be learning what it is to have good character, learning how to work hard and learning those lessons that sports teaches you that go into so many other aspects of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The influence of the UNBC Timberwolves on youth soccer development continues under the leadership of women\u2019s varsity team head coach Neil Sedgwick, who also serves as PGYSA technical director. Beer said nine of the coaches who worked at the TWolves summer skills camp were current or former PGYSA players.<\/p>\n
Beer, the pastor of United Church in Prince George, is hoping to grow the sponsorship programs and partner with local businesses to help keep registration costs affordable. Kids playing in the youngest age groups in the Timbit program, sponsored by Tim Hortons, pay $100 per season \u2014 which includes a jersey, socks and shorts.<\/p>\n
He said the Prince George Soccer Association also does its part in developing young talent, allowing players aged 16 and older from PGYSA to play in the adult leagues. The U16 boys currently play in the men\u2019s league, and last year there was a U18 team involved. That helps make up for the lack of competition in the region for youth teams within their own age groups.<\/p>\n
Prince George won its bid to host the Provincial B Cup in 2027, which will bring 80 teams to the city that weekend in early July. Beer said Tourism Prince George is already helping connect with local hotels to offer discounted room rates for the teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are excited about it. It\u2019s always great when a big event comes to Prince George,\u201d said Beer.<\/p>\n
The tournament features five age groups \u2014 U14, U15, U16, U17 and U18 \u2014 in each gender.<\/p>\n
The Prince George Impact U17 girls, coached by Mark Chadwick, won back-to-back provincial titles at this year\u2019s Kamloops tournament on July 13, having won gold at the U16 level in 2024. Last year\u2019s U18 boys team won provincial bronze.<\/p>\n
Rotary Field includes seven full-sized fields, and five more are available from the PGSA. Beer said BC Soccer considers Prince George an ideal place to host a large youth tournament.<\/p>\n
The host team gets a bye into the provincial tournament, which could mean as many as 10 local teams in action for the 2027 event. This year, five of the six PGYSA travel teams qualified for the Provincial B Cup.<\/p>\n
PGYSA is also in line to host the qualifying tournament that will determine the zone teams to compete in the 2026 Provincial B Cup, also in Kamloops.<\/p>\n
The PGYSA fall season runs from Sept. 8 to Oct. 9. Registration closes on Sept. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The philosophical rift that tore the city\u2019s youth soccer community apart \u2014 and sent the number of registered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-87050","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-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87050","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=87050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}