Awards, all-stars as women’s soccer team preps for semi
Individual awards mean squat on the day the team has worked towards all season, but there were lots of them to go around for the Medicine Hat College soccer teams.
Rattlers bench boss Jim Loughlin was named the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference coach of the year in the women’s South Division, while three women’s and three men’s players earned spots on the divisional all-conference teams Thursday night.
“It’s nice to be recognized by your peers for having done a good job,” said Loughlin on the phone from Edmonton, where the women’s team plays in a conference semifinal Saturday against Grande Prairie. “It’s neat to know but at the end of the day it’s a team game.
“If we left here not achieving the goal that we wanted to, all the awards... wouldn’t feel the same.”
Top scorer Kaity Letwiniuk and midfielder Jordyn Bell-Hamm were obvious choices as women’s all-stars, while rookie defender Atlanta Evis was shocked at her inclusion. Men’s midfielders Rodrigo Tavares and Jared Ursulan were joined by defender Matheus Tavares to round out their all-conference selections.
The men’s season ended in controversial fashion at home with a quarter-final loss Friday afternoon, while the women had a first-round bye and can qualify for nationals with a win over Grande Prairie, as both ACAC women’s finalists earn spots next month in Montreal. They got to watch Grande Prairie beat Olds 3-2 in Friday’s quarter-final, having earned a bye to the semi with an 8-2 regular season record.
“I’ve never wanted to win anything more,” said BellHamm, a three-time all-star now in her fourth campaign. “This game to me is the final. I don’t care if I have to carry my whole team; I’m winning this game, going to nationals.”
Grande Prairie presents an intriguing matchup. Their coach, Chris Morgan, won the award for North Division coach of the year. They also had three all-stars, one forward, one midfielder and one at defence. And from the sounds of it, they play a similarly offensive-minded game that could leave both coaches with less hair and more wrinkles when it’s said and done.
“All of the defensive principles that we’ve talked about and worked on, you just might have to park those for 90 minutes,” laughed Loughlin, who was told he’s now the leader among active ACAC soccer coaches with seven awards in his 12 seasons in Medicine Hat.
That means there will be extra pressure for Evis, a Calgary native who didn’t start the first few games of the season. Since taking on a bigger role she and the Rattlers haven’t lost.
“It was nice for (Loughlin) to say ‘you’re good enough for this, I believe in you,’” said Evis, who felt the same confidence in receiving the ACAC accolade. “But I was also scared.
“It’s going to be an interesting game, it could go either way.”
The other women’s semifinal Saturday pits North champion NAIT against Concordia, which edged SAIT 1-0 Friday.
“...it could go either way.”
– Atlanta Evis