The Sacred Heart High School boys soccer team brought home a provincial title in the 2A division this past weekend. The tournament was held in Prince Albert.
The provincial championship gold medal game put the Saints against the host team, Se Se Wa Hum. The final score was 7-2. The goals for Sacred Heart were scored by Nick Fetsch (4), Austin Thomas, Jarius Pellatt and Louis Shin.
The team’s captains are Nathan Cochrane, Austin Thomas and Michael Dobrowolski. After an assembly at Sacred Heart on Monday, which was put together to recognize the team’s achievements, the captains had nothing but positivity to share about the tournament and their season.
“It was kind of nerve racking going in, especially coming out short in the past few years,” said Thomas. “But we came out hard.”
The Saints had faced Se Se Wa Hum earlier in the season, and had claimed the victory in that game, so they knew they could do it again.
“We had great coaching all through the year. Everyone showed up to practice and we had a lot of commitment,” said Cochrane, when asked what the secret to the team’s success was.
The team is coached by Scott Hoffort, Jeanne Fetsch and Bailey Inglis. While the team has been good since the beginning, the coaches didn’t know just how good they would be.
“I think we knew we would have a good team. But I don’t know that we were one hundred per cent convinced that we would get a provincial championship. I knew we would be competitive, but this was a really nice way to finish, and affirm the hard work the boys put in,” said coach Jeanne Fetsch.
All three coaches agreed that they didn’t realize that the team had a good shot at a provincial title until about two weeks ago – at the regional playoffs. They said at the practice before regionals, a switch flipped for the boys and they started to play at a whole new level.
“I think they bought in to what our philosophy was at that point in time,” said Hoffort. “We really said we had to play really hard defense, which they started doing at that point, and then we saw one hundred per cent effort on the field. They did it themselves.”
From there, Hoffort said their transition game picked up which led to better offensive play.
“Everyone started to play together as a team, and work together, and that’s what won. That’s what got us the gold this past weekend,” said Inglis.
In the past two years, the team made it into the provincial gold medal game, but had only come away with the silver medal. This year, they had an extra surge of hunger to claim the gold medal. The coaches said they arrived to play this weekend with a quiet confidence.
“They played with urgency this weekend, too,” said Hoffort. “It was something that was necessary. We never stopped until the ninety minutes were done.”
Looking ahead to next year’s team, the coaches have confidence that they will be a strong team again. They are losing five seniors this year, but have some strong young players who will likely show up to compete.
This gold medal secures the team a spot in next year’s provincial championships, which will be held at Sacred Heart.
