The Prince George Women's Soccer Association is about to shed light on a new season.
Improvements planned for Michelle Lamarche Field won't be ready in time for the opening games tonight. But by midseason, the 15-team league should have working light standards and a storage shed/washroom facility in place at its facility on the western fringe of the city's soccer community near Exhibition Park.
The league has $110,000 in the bank to pay for field improvements and is working out the design for a building to be used to store nets and equipment and give teams washrooms and a place to change into their uniforms.
"We're in talks with the city to get a new fieldhouse," said Kirsty Ames, now in her ninth season as PGWSA president. "It won't be as big as the men's but it will have a couple of changerooms and bathrooms but we want an area big enough so we can store the nets under cover for the winter so they don't get damaged
"We were saving for new fields because we were growing but we've held steady (in player registration), so we figure we'll put lights on one field. It's already wired for lights. It's not that they want to play at night, but by the time August comes around you can't play after 7:30 because it starts to get dark and (because of Cranbrook Hill) or field is the first one to get dark.
"With lights, we could have a longer season and still have playoffs. It's just a matter of finding a contractor and getting that done."
The PGWSA will have three teams in Division 1 -- Accelerated Physiotherapy, Kodiak Chrome and Manning Notaries; four in Division 2 -- Save-On-Foods, CNC TyAnda, Caribou Brewmasters and Mothus Dawes Hotties; four in Division 3 -- Pathfinder Endeavours, Westcana Electric, Myatovic Construction and Team Kason; and four in Division 4 -- QML Contracting, Columbia Bitulithic, NIFI/Liquor Warehouse and Can You Dig It Contracting.
"The numbers are down (from 16 to 14) but most of them have more players on them this year, said Ames. "We had a couple teams last year that had issues getting enough players for games so we had a couple teams fold and those players joined other teams. Each team has a minimum of 18 players and some have 23."
The league has added about 20 Prince George Youth Soccer Association graduates, most of whom are former all-star or traveling team select players from the PGYSA. In total there are close to 40 new players who have joined the league, 30 of whom were picked in the league draft.
"You need them to replenish the numbers in Div. 1," said Ames. "Before that there had been a big lull. The last five years we hadn't had as many new Div. 1 players as we would've liked to have."
Division 1 and Division 2 teams will play crossover schedule in which they play each other once over the next two months. Each team plays the other teams in its division twice. A similar schedule interlocks Division 3 and Division 4.
"It's an attempt to get the teams in Div 2 to realize it's not that bad to play teams in Div. 1," said Ames. "It's not as strong as they think it is."
The league will shut down for one week (the first week of July) but will otherwise play its games from May to mid-August. Other than this past weekend's icebreaker there are no women's soccer tournaments planned for this season. But Ames said there's a good chance they will join forces with the North Cariboo Senior Soccer (men's) League for a seven-a-side mixed tournament during the NCSSL playoffs in mid-September.
The league is offering drop-in rec soccer Wednesday nights at 7:30 for players who aren't part of existing teams or those who just want to play more often. The drop-in registration fee is $25 for the season.
"It's good for people who don't want to sign up for a team or don't want to play an average of three games every two weeks and it helps some women who don't have enough time to do that," said Ames "Some women's are just trying to figure out if they want to get back into soccer. Some of them play in goal on their teams and want to play out as position players."
Tonight's opening-day matchups include: Save-On-Foods vs. Mothus Dawes Hotties at 6 p.m., and two 7:30 p.m. games -- Manning Notaries vs. Accelerated Physiotherapy and CNC TyAnda vs. Caribou Brewmasters.
For more information go to the PGWSA website, www.teampages.com/organizations/1621.
