CALGARY, Alberta — When the U15 Alberta Youth Soccer League kicked off in July, the Calgary Blizzard girls’ team was not quite ready to take the field yet.

“The girls had been ‘socially distanced’ training for quite some time and were probably not necessarily physically prepared for the start of the season,” Calgary Blizzard coach Diogo Raposo said.

Before emerging as the undefeated champions (8-0-4) in the 12-game tournament, the orange team also had to deal with the emotional distress that the pandemic brought with it.

“The pandemic and multiple lock-downs were hard on players from mental health as well as social/emotional point of view. Some players were almost afraid to be fully excited for the season in fear that it would all get shut down again,” Raposo added.

The coach pointed out that some girls battled especially at the beginning of the season from all four corners of the game (technical/tactical, social/emotional, physical and mental). He admitted that even the technical staff was “overly excited at times”, and worked hard “to manage player physical loads to ensure we stayed healthy as well as adapted to player needs, as the season went on, as the girls had been off the field for quite some time.”

Raposo believes that the esprit de corps of this 17-girls roster was crucial to maintain the consistency until the final game: “Their biggest motivation was each other and not to let each other down.”

While the league was on, the Blizzard had another incentive: Canada’s women’s national team was in the race for the Olympic gold medal.

“The parents in our team’s Snapchat were also very invested in the Olympic Games which was great to see. We knew how important the moment was for female soccer in Canada,” Raposo recalled. “Our girls in 3 years will be off to University with most of them likely most playing post-secondary soccer…The girls know that Canada needs to continue to work on the female soccer pathway but they also understand that they will play a role in that future, and will be the female role models for the next generation at Calgary Blizzard SC.”

The girls had an in-between season trip to Surrey, where they took part in the SX Cup 2021. They went through a tough patch: they lost two games during the tournament and could not bring home the medals.

“In hindsight, that may have been all the motivation we needed at the time to help us refocus, reset and finish the season,” Raposo said.

The team had only scored twice in the two league matches before going to Vancouver. When the league resumed, they tallied five times against the Calgary Rangers.

It was the season’s final game, though, the one that may have required Blizzard’s best performance. “We respected all of our opponents and each game was treated like a final. Naturally, as you get closer and closer to the end of the season the pressure does increase, and there is a demand to perform or another team will. We would say the final game versus the Edmonton Scottish was a higher-pressure situation as the winner of that game could potentially win the league,” Raposo said. The Calgary Blizzard prevailed 2-1 at the Calgary West Soccer Centre, to take the crown the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Even though they did not score that last game for the Calgary Blizzard, Kiann Bonhert and Brooke Batty formed one of the most lethal strike partnerships of the tournament: they scored a combined 15 goals (the whole team hit the net 36 times). During their first duel of the season, in Edmonton, the Scottish itself witnessed the ability of Brooke to send precise centers to the area and the agility of Bonhert to take advantage of her height. That day, the orange crew needed to score only once to claim the victory.

St. Albert Impact Head Coach Cam Leverman applauded their Calgarian rivals and his coach “for his work with those girls” and said they were “tough to play against”. The Blizzard won both times: 4-2, at home, and 1-3, on the road.

Raposo thanked the support received from the Blizzard boys PDP06 team, the Blizzard boys program staff, Orka Performance, Miguel, the Blizzard Athletic Trainer, as well as the parents of the girls. He was particularly grateful for the contributions of his assistants on the bench, Tayla Cowan and Will Feria: “They not only built connection and rapport with the players but helped me immensely to bounce ideas and game plans, and challenge me when they thought we needed to do something different.”

The Calgary Blizzard were also the team with the best goal difference (+26) of the AYSL.

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