Woolwich Wolfpack U16 boys parlay five shutouts to take Ambassador Cup in Kingston
THE WOOLWICH WOLFPACK U16 boys’ rep. soccer team took home the Kingston Ambassador Cup this past weekend, beating Kingston at home for the win.
Playing five games – three in round robin play, a semi-final match and finishing off in the finals – the boys allowed no goals against.
“The tournament went well up in Kingston,” said head coach Takuya Shibayama. “The boys played really well everyday and the result was that we got the ‘W’.”
Saturday’s first game saw Woolwich go up against the Gloucester Hornets, resulting in a nil-nil tie. The day ended with the boys pulling a 3-0 win against Seaway Valley.
The final round robin game, and first for Sunday, saw Woolwich beat the Kemptville Kougars 1-0 to advance to the semi-finals.
In the semis Woolwich beat out the second Gloucester team, the Swarm, by a score of 2-0, sending them on to face Kingston United. The 3-0 win over the home team earned them the cup.
Shibayama said the boys played unbelievable games, crediting the defenseman and goalie Ryan Parrot for the team’s success.
“Shout out to our goalie and our defence for that, they played amazing. Our goalie didn’t let a single goal in, and it wasn’t that the other teams were necessarily weak teams, they were really shooting on our goalie,” he said. “He even stopped a penalty shot to keep his streak alive.”
Although impressive, Shibayama said this consecutive shutout pattern is not uncommon with Parrot’s net play.
“And to be honest he does that in our season too – he is quite a good goalie,” he said.
The warm and semi-windy two-day tournament saw the Woolwich team among some 2,400 soccer players competing for the cups in Kingston.
A soccer player himself, Shibayama is new to coaching the team.
“I coached for a few years for younger age groups for U12 and U13. The former coach for the U16 team was with them for about six years. Usually in soccer you want to change coaches around every two or three years so that the team gets an experience being coached by different people, different perspectives about how to play the game,” he said, noting that that is why he is coaching them this year.
Shibayama couldn’t say enough about how great the team is to coach.
“Overall it has just been a nice season. The boys are very easy to coach, although some people might not believe me ... because they are 16-year-old boys, but it has been a fun season. They are very coachable guys. They are very good people,” he said.
The next tournament the boys have to look forward to will be held here at home on August 12-13.
Although they won’t have the opportunity to come up against Kingston again, they are looking forward to defending their home turf.