The South Delta United Hawks are taking their season to next weekend’s Coastal Cup Championships and it won’t stop until this summer in Kamloops.
The U13 boys team secured its spot in Saturday’s Coastal “B” Cup final in Ridge Meadows after trimming Coquitlam Metro Ford (CMF) Sevilla in the semi-finals. The Hawks will face CMF Villa for Coastal bragging rights and both teams will be part of the Len Sinnott Memorial Provincial Boys “B” Cup Championships, July 7 to 10 in Kamloops.
With help from Peter Schaad, head coach René Welz has spent a number of years mentoring these boys from a young age to become the players they are today.
South Delta went 8-4-0 in league play and also produced wins over Vancouver F.C. (2-1) and North Vancouver FC (1-0) en route to the final.
“Peter and I both share a philosophy where we encourage the boys to problem solve their own challenges individually and as a team, thus creating an intelligent soccer player and a cohesive team,” explained Welz. “Although technical drills are a big part of our soccer practices, our favoured method of learning is replicating realistic game-like situations and walking through key learning points.”
Welz also credited additional nurturing with SDU technical director Mike Frank and his staff that has resulted in a very strong 2009 age group that includes a number of players on the Delta Coastal Selects team that headed to the U13A Coastal Cup final.
“They have consciously implemented a strategy to enter multiple prospect teams over the years with smaller roster numbers versus fewer prospect teams with large roster numbers. The outcome being more kids in our community involved and getting more time and exposure to soccer at a competitive level from a younger age,” added Welz.
The Hawks roster features: goalkeeper Mason Dubnov, Luke Beauchamp, Saj Dhillon, Niklas Ljungberg, Dylan Nakasone, Oliver Welz, Samuel Steele, Dexter Paziuk, Kyle Pearson, Rowan Shelly, Charlie Taylor, Matthew MacKay, Carter Keen, Cole Hudie and Greyson Gough.
