Huskies Women's Futsal News

Huskies Display Futsal Prowess

Tuesday, 23 March 2010 19:40

By Corey Atkinson, Fort McMurray Today

March 23, 2010: The Keyano Huskies futsal teams found their way into the gold medal games at the tournament held this weekend at Keyano College, but couldn't mine anything other than silver.

The Medicine Hat Rattlers women's team defeated the Huskies women's team 4-0.,

Huskies women's coach Mark Oxer was happy with getting to the gold medal game. "We didn't do well in our first tournament at Lakeland," Oxer admitted. "To come back on our own turf and beat them was pretty good. We haven't beaten Medicine Hat yet this season. So to go up 3-0 on them and take them to a shootout in the round robin was really good as well."

The women's team won 4-3 on penalty kicks over the senior team, won 4-0 over the alumni and 3-2 over the Lakeland Rustlers. They lost 4-3 in a dramatic penalty shootout to the Medicine Hat Rattlers. "We're disappointed to lose in the finals," Oxer said. "Medicine Hat wanted it a little bit more, it seemed like. I think it was definitely good."

The Huskies look to be on the right path, but their bright-looking future will be without Oxer. He handed in his resignation as women's soccer coach last week. "I'm still doing some recruiting and there will be another coach coming in," Oxer said. "I'll leave behind my thoughts on where to continue the program for going (forward)."

The sport does have a future within the ACAC, the coach said. "It was a good opportunity, this season, to showcase the sport," Oxer said. "We had participants like Grande Prairie and Mount Royal involved and into the sport. I think it's going to be tough to get some of the bigger Edmonton schools involved because they have all these indoor turf surfaces."

Keyano Huskies goalkeeper Simone Quinlan tries to get a rebound while Medicine Hat Rattlers striker Cassie Westerman looks to pounce during the women s gold medal match at the Syncrude Sport & Wellness Centre Sunday. (Photo by Corey Atkinson)

Futsal has the Energy!

Tuesday, 23 March 2010 11:09

Futsal has the Energy

March 4, 2010: “We have the energy” is the unofficial slogan for Fort McMurray and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

“We have the energy” may also be the unofficial slogan for the sport of futsal in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Association (ACAC).

“ There has been a lot of energy generated at the two venues who have hosted the first two futsal tournaments this year,” said ACAC futsal convener Alan Rogan, of the sport which debuted in exhibition format in 2010 with tournaments held January 22-24 at Lakeland College in Lloydminster and February 12-13 at Medicine Hat College. “Crowds of upward 200 people at times attended!”

A third and final exhibition tournament is scheduled to be held March 19-21, 2010 at the Syncrude Sport & Wellness Centre in Fort McMurray with the host Keyano College Huskies.

Rogan, who is athletic director at Lakeland College, said that it has been “quite some time since (the ACAC) has introduced a new sport.”

“When we first discussed the new sport (futsal) a couple of years ago many of the ACAC institutions voiced interest in competing but with the current financial situation a number of the institutions are having to relook at whether or not they can join immediately or have to wait. We have had some questions around what is the best format and operating rules but the coaches who have attended the tournaments have been very engaged when it comes to helping set the future direction for the sport in the ACAC.

“It is important to go through an exhibition season to work through things like sport specific rules, scheduling and to have all the stakeholders coaches, athletic directors and student-athletes to supply feedback to make sure that if the sport moves forward the process moves forward as smoothly as possible.

” Futsal is a sport that would complement the outdoor soccer season as it runs in the winter semester.”

So what is the sport of futsal you ask?

Basically, Fustal 101, it is indoor soccer played with five players a side and with a smaller ball. Naturally the indoor area is not as large as an outdoor regulation pitch, so with that in mind, there is a focus on creativity and improvisation as well as ball control.

Since it was not mandatory that all 16 ACAC members attend one of the futsal tournaments this year, only half have participated to date.

Rogan said that “we do not have a firm number as of yet” for when the sport is added to the 2010-2011 ACAC regular season but has already “heard from four colleges who are interested” and added “a minimum of four teams will be required to commit to compete.”

One of those colleges ready to commit is Keyano College Huskies.

“Keyano College is very excited about the sport of futsal and trying to do our part to make sure it is a sanctioned sport in the ACAC,” said Huskies Athletic Director Wade Kolmel. “We know our student interaction in futsal is very high and we look forward to bringing it to the campus.”

Huskies are not new to the sport of futsal as both the men’s and women’s teams captured gold medals in the Alberta Colleges Athletic League in 2009.

Competing in the March 19-21, 2010 tournament with a 7 p.m. start Friday, March 19 are Medicine Hat College Rattlers, Lakeland College Rustlers, Keyano College Huskies and two non ACAC teams; Keyano Huskies alumni and representation from both genders from the Fort McMurray senior league.

“This is also a great opportunity to introduce the game of futsal to the adult programs in Fort McMurray,” said Kolmel, who is also president of the ACAC.

Huskies men coached by Jonathan Soper, are winless in six exhibition matches, outscored 38-13, which may be a bit deceiving as majority of their games have been close aside from a 12-1 loss to the powerhouse Lakeland College Rustlers.

Huskies women coached by Mark Oxer, sport a record of two wins, four losses and two ties with 23 goals for and 32 goals against. A key player for the Huskies is goalie Simone Quinlan, who English Football Association scouts had “high praise” for when attending the Medicine Hat tournament.

“They may have her possibly try out for a couple of teams in Europe or some higher level teams in the United States,” says Oxer.

Huskies competing in futsal

keyano48

Photo courtesy of Dan Lines

Huskies' Quinlan Noticed

Sunday Feb 14, 2010 - Keyano College Huskies men’s and women's futsal teams participated in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference second futsal tournament of 2010 this past weekend at Medicine Hat’s Exhibition & Stampede Centre.

An exhibition sport in the ACAC, with three tournaments scheduled for 2010, the Huskies women tied the Mount Royal Cougars 5-5 in their opening match “We never trailed,” said women’s coach Mark Oxer. “This is quite impressive as Mount Royal has a strong tradition having been to (outdoor soccer) nationals many times in the past. “We were up 5-4 with 20 seconds to go and they scored. Our girls played disciplined defences as they (Cougars) were an attacking team and we burned them with the counter attack.”

“Mental mistakes,” cost the Huskies a 6-2 loss to Medicine Hat B squad in their next game while game three had the Huskies hammering the Lakeland College Rustlers 7-1. “The girls were phenomenal in that game,” said Oxer. “We basically won the counter attack.”

In the semi-finals the Huskies fell to the Medicine Hat A squad 5-0. Oxer added that English Football Association scouts were in attendance at the tournament and had “high praise” for Huskies goalie Simone Quinlan. “They may have her possibly try out for a couple of teams in Europe or some higher level teams in the United States,” says Oxer.

Canadian Futsal at the College Level

Canadian Futsal at the College Level

August 11th, 2009 courtesy futsalcanada.ca

Canadian College futsal? Oh, what a dream! Many in the futsal and soccer community believe it is only a matter of time before the CIS and CCAA adopt futsal as a sport. But you will be surprised to know which college association currently offers futsal to its members.

It was a very nice surprise to find out that sport existed at the college level here in Canada. No it is not run by the CCAA, OCAA, or the BCCAA. The pioneers of college futsal in Canada happen to be located in oil country where the Alberta Colleges Athletic Leagues (ACAL) has competitive futsal leagues for both mens and womens. When all of us at futsalcanada.ca first learned that the ACAL had competitive futsal, needless to say we were blown away.

ACAL 2009 Womens Champs: Keyano College

All one has to do is take a look at their website www.acal.ab.ca and you'll see four main sports: volleyball, basketball, hockey, and yes, futsal! Naturally we were quite excited in learning more about the ACAL futsal system and how we could help promote them to the rest of the country. What we did was call up Mark Oxer, the Athletic Director and Head Coach of the 2009 ACAL's mens and womens champiionship teams from Keyano College in the oil boom town of Fort McMurray.

Like many who were relatively new to futsal, Mark was an instant convert, after seeing the results in his youth players when he introduced the sport into his training programs. His genuine enthusiasm for the sport was quite evident right off the bat when we spoke with him, a common trait among people who pick up the sport. He explained that the ACAL was essentially the 3rd level of competition in the Canadian post-secondary sporting scene. Most top athletes compete within the CIS system (Canadian Interuniversity Sport), while the CCAA (Canadian Colleges Athletic Association) also has its fair share of elite Canadian athletes. Mark likened the ACAL to Canada's division 3 level, when looking at the American NCAA model, but believes futsal will eventually become a part of all college and university athletic associations.

Naturally, the ACAL play using the FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game and all matches are played in large college gymnasiums. The league runs from November through March.

Keyano Championship Teams

The mens division currently has 6 teams with colleges from Calgary, Edmonton and others the league has a 10 game schedule and like 95% of futsal leagues in Canada runs during the fall/winter season. Keyano finished atop the league standings via goal dofference after posting an 8-2 record before defeating Calgary's Ambrose College in the playoff final by a 5-2 scoreline.

Adrianna Martinez was named playoff final MVP as she helped clinch the womens title for Keyano with a 3-1 win over undefeated Ambrose. The womens divisiion has just 5 teams but Oxer says this season is going to see a major increase in new colleges for the league.

Keyano Mens

There are currently 12 member colleges within the ACAL and every one of them is expected to produce a futsal team this year in a demostrative capacity whereas the aim is to have futsal become a fully sanctioned sport by the 2010/2011 season. For those of you wishing to learn more about ACAL futsal and how to get involved and help build the sport in Alberta feel free to contact markoxer @ keyano.ca

2009 ACAL FUTSAL 1st TEAM ALL STARS

MENS 1st TEAM

Mike Stapley (Keyano College), Matt Eagleson (Ambrose College) Yuji Minestuji (Olds College), Lucas Curran (Keyano College), Phil Seutter (Taylor College),

WOMENS 1st TEAM

Casey Boda (Ambrose College), Jessica Griffin (St. Mary's College), Allison Parry (Ambrose College), Andrea Mann (Olds College), Cali Seater (Olds College)