Lethbridge Soccer Association seeing plenty of upside this season

By Lethbridge Herald on June 20, 2023.

Lethbridge Soccer Association is kicking through what has turned out to be a successful 2023 campaign so far.

LSA technical director Sam Heap thinks this has been the most successful season to date in his four years with the organization.

“I’ve really enjoyed watching every game I’ve watched this year and every session I’ve watched,” said Heap.

“You know there’s been minimal issues which is not always the case when you’re running volunteer programs. You know sometimes there are issues but think we’ve had a really good group this year … Everyone’s really got on and enjoyed it and like I said before, it’s led to a really good environment.”

The highlights for the house program have been the amount of young coaches that have gotten  involved this season.

“So the volunteer numbers have really gone through the roof, and it’s really good to see young people wanting to volunteer their time to come out and work with  the players of the house program and give back to their community,” said Heap.

“That’s definitely one of the highlights for myself, (is) seeing a lot of the players from the competitive program comeback into our recreational program and give up their time to coach there.”

As for the competitive programs, Heap highlighted the amount of tournaments won so far.

“We’ve taken teams all over Alberta and (have) been really  successful,” he said.

“We’re  now breaking into a lot of Tier 1 tournaments, which is you know not something we’ve done for a long time in Lethbridge. We’re usually a Tier 2 kind of club but we’ve started to break into that Tier 1 environment now … and it shows that we’re taking big steps forward.”

“Yeah, we’re sitting just over 2,000 in player registrations this season,” said Kristy Lauzon, LSA program’s coordinator.

“So it’s been our highest in a few years, especially since the whole COVID thing and what not.  So that was great. Yeah, we have our U5 to U7 programs that are ran by our older LFC players that all get fully certified in their coaching world to do that. So that’s been a big bonus, and then our U9 to U18s is just our volunteer parent group as well. But yeah, I don’t know, it’s been a very successful season and it’s (unfortunate) that  it’s such a short season. But it’s been really good.”

The outdoor house leagues end this weekend with Soccer Fest while competitive teams will continue through summer.