Courtesy: Fort McMurray Today


A step above

Five members of the Keyano Huskies have made the cut onto the ACAC’s 2012 All-Conference teams for futsal while Jonathan Soper was named coach of the year

by Trevor Howlett

The Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference released the 2012 All-Conference teams for futsal and Keyano College was well-represented for both the men’s and women’s Huskies teams.

Jonathan Soper became the first Huskies coach to be named an all-star this season, being named ACAC coach of the year for men’s futsal. Soper, who has more of a background in soccer than the indoor variant, was surprised at the honour.

“I was very surprised,” said Soper. ”I’m a very intense coach and I put it right on my players why I was given that honour; the players that played this year got me that title for sure.”

Santiago Raigoza was named a first team all star on the All-Conference team, while Luis Fossi and Alexi Otti were both named to the second team.

“Santiago, in my opinion, is probably player of the year in regards to futsal,” said Soper. “He really brings a lot of dynamics to the game and he has a lot of knowledge of the game. He’s probably helped coached the players, just as much as I have.”

Soper added, “Luis Fossi played fantastic — great keeper, shotstopper — he really kept us in a lot of games we shouldn’t have been; should’ve been first team all star but you can’t win them all.

“As for Alex … fantastic explosive player, transitions from offense to defense very quickly, great one two punch with Santiago.”

Soper added his team’s success relied on him using the three all-stars extensively and having their strengths lead the team.

On the women’s side, April Weigelt was named to the All-Conference first team, while Lauren Bonokoski slotted in on the second team. Both players were playing somewhat unfamiliar positions, with Weigelt playing defense in soccer and forward in futsal and Bonoksoski having almost no experience in goaltending.”

“April is a power forward: she’s tall, she’s aggressive and she’s one we feed the ball to up high, ”said Huskies women’s coach Ian Diaz. “She rewards herself by scoring the goals that she does. If I would’ve put her in the back, she probably wouldn’t have made all-star, but she has the ability to turn people and go to the net.

“Lauren was a total surprise because she didn’t get put in the net until two days before the first tournament,” said Diaz. “She put in two days of intense training and putting in the time and after that she did well, she knows the position pretty good.”

Both Huskies teams will head off to Medicine Hat this weekend for the ACAC futsal championship.




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com