It was a dream season for the MCI varsity girls soccer team, and the group was able to cap it all off by winning the Provincial banner over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Magic from the start<\/p>\n
Legendary coach Claes Aschberg couldn’t be prouder of the girls and says the team was special right from day one. “Right from the start of the year,” the veteran coach says with a grin. “We had a really, really strong team. I have never, I don’t think that there has ever been a rural area team so strong. We had young, really young girls, but, like, a lot older girls, too, like, nine grade 12s. We played 16 games this year, that includes the Provincial, and then we scored 92 goals, and we were letting only 2 goals in. So that showed how strong the team was.”<\/p>\n
The final game<\/p>\n
“Well, the highlight was basically we dominated the game too,” Aschberg says with a smile. “Like the last game, but it was still probably one of the best games that we had this year. Like, I mean, the girls were really pumped up for that game. We dominated that game, too. Like, even though it was only like 3-0, it was a good win. So, we missed a few open nets and stuff like that. The girls played awesome, awesome, awesome all year. The commitment from the older girls and the younger girls, how the team came together, and even in the last game, was really good.”<\/p>\n
Bittersweet celebration<\/p>\n
When it was all said and done, Achberg says he took a little time to let it all sink in, and as happy as he was, he was also emotional knowing it was the final time he’d coach some of the players he’s been around for years. “Well, it’s really hard, like, I’m losing nine girls, like, great girls, so that was the last game with them. I have been with them for five years, basically together. Known these girls, like, really well. So it was a really heartwarming and teary-eyed situation.”<\/p>\n
Growing the program<\/p>\n
Over the years, Achberg has been a key part in the program’s success, but he’s quick to point out he’s had some great people pulling the rope with him. “I can’t get the credit by myself,” he says humbly. “I’ve been really fortunate. I have had a lot of help, like, from Altona coach, and then the NPC coach. So, I need to give a lot of credit to those people, too, because we run a program for Southern Park, Manitoba, for girls, like all girls. We have girls from Altona, Winkler, Morden, Carman, and a few girls from Steinbach. Because there’s not really anything for the girls, so we have run these programs together around the year. So that has helped out a lot of the girls. Local girls to be available to see like, get some recognition from Winnipeg and some universities. As we have in a modern team, we have four girls who have signed from different universities, so it just shows how good our program has been in the past five years.”<\/p>\n
With that, Achberg has high hopes that things can continue to trend upward, but adds there is help needed. “I would just like to have more people, more coaches to develop their times for their girls. Unfortunately, there aren’t really any programs except our program, like the Pembina Valley Reds program, for the girls to be available to develop in this area. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of stuff going for the boys, but there aren’t enough coaches and help to develop the girls. It’s growing, but we should put more effort on people to help girls’ programs in any sport in Southern Park, Manitoba.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a dream season for the MCI varsity girls soccer team, and the group was able to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-938810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938810","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=938810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}