The Cedar Secondary School Spartans rounded off a spectacular athletic year, placing 10th in the Sr. A girls soccer provincial championships May 31 to June 2 in Kelowna.
“We knew going in that we weren’t necessarily the favourites, but we knew that we had an opportunity to do something special, and overall, it was a good event,” said vice-principal Bill Rounis.
The Spartans first faced a tough match against the tournament host, Immaculata, for a 5-0 loss.
Their next game against Whistler resulted in a close 4-3 loss and put them in the bottom two pools vying for ninth spot.
The girls were thrown a real game changer when goalie Kelsie Nicholls blew out her knee from a collision in their first playoff game.
“They found a way to deal with that adversity, and they still found a way to keep close and win,” Rounis said.
Two more wins put the Spartans up against Similkameen in the final match for ninth place, which resulted in a 1-0 loss.
This has been a special year for Cedar Secondary, which, for the first time, has sent its senior girls to the provincial championships in all three sports — volleyball, basketball and soccer.
“I’m so proud of the girls and so proud of the program itself,” Rounis said. “Athletics has been the backbone of this school for years; it has a strong tradition.”
Rounis credited a strong group of athletes who have participated in sports programs throughout their five years in high school, as well as the commitment of the coaches, like Dee Randen. Randen coaches Cedar’s Sr. A girls soccer team, a team with 23 members from Grades 8-12.
“This has been a process — certainly for those Grade 12s, it’s been five years of success,” Rounis said.
“I would say there’s a good chunk of those Grade 12s that played every sport every year.”