Early in the spring-summer soccer season, the region’s top teams look like they’ll be right in the thick of things.
The Mid-Isle FC men’s and women’s sides are both off to 1-0-1 starts in their respective Pacific Coast Soccer League tables.
The club will play home games both at Ladysmith's turf field and also at Nanaimo’s Merle Logan Field. The women’s squad tied West Van FC 1-1 on May 12 at Merle Logan.
“It was a good battle,” said Craig Glennie, the team’s assistant coach. “I feel we were the better team. We had more scoring opportunities; unfortunately, we just didn’t finish our chances when we had them.”
The women’s team has players as young as 16, up to over-age players in their mid-20s.
“We’ve had some players that have just arrived from university from out of town, so it’s a building process,” Glennie said. “You’re hoping to build and peak at the right time.”
Ceilidh Glennie has scored in both her team’s games, and some other key players include Krista Whittaker of UBC, Alli Bach of the University of Victoria and Ladysmith's Mairi Horth of UBC-Okanagan, plus members of the Vancouver Island University Mariners program.
“So we’ve got a very experienced squad along with our younger players. And our younger players, some of them have played at a high-enough level that they can actually fit in very well,” Craig Glennie said. “It’s going to be a very good team, very skilled and very well balanced.”
GAME ON … The next games in Ladysmith are June 2, when the Mid-Isle FC men host Vancouver's Total Soccer Systems at 1:30 p.m. and the women play TSS at 4 p.m.