Left with just one team in its top division for 2011, the Prince George Women's Soccer Association has had to shuffle its deck to restructure what is now a 22-team league.
The Treasure Cove Casino team dissolved at the end of last season and that left Subway FC as the only women's squad returning to Division 1. Rather than break up that team, the league has created an exhibition schedule in which Subway will play two teams from the Prince George Youth Soccer Association, the Under-15s and Under-18s, as well as the PGWSA Selects.
Instead of designating that group as Division 1, the league decided it would put off forming its four divisions and has created two groups of 11 teams for a spring season that ends June 29.
All players who last year were part of Division 1 and want to play in the spring league have been distributed to Group 1 teams. To create more parity, each team is limited to a maximum of two players who played last season in Division 1.
"Basically, nobody wanted to play up there [in Division 1] because all the best players were on the same team [Subway]," said PGWSA president Kirsty Ames. "One of the teams folded in mid-season last year, so we were left with two women's teams, Treasure Cove and Subway, and two youth teams, and then we lost Treasure Cove. Div. 1 was falling apart, so we worked this out."
Any other former Division 1 players not placed on Group 1 teams will be made available in the league's player draft, June 16. All players from the Prince George Youth Soccer Association entering the women's league this year will be distributed through the draft.
At the end of the spring schedule, the 11 Group 1 teams will be placed in either the first or second divisions, based on their records in league play. The same division will occur in Group 2 to form the third and fourth divisions for the summer season, which starts July 7.
"We have 11 teams in Group 1 and the top five will be Div. 1 and the bottom five five will be Div. 2, and the middle one, whichever it's closest to, it will go in that division," said Ames.
The U-15 team last season pulled off a big upset in the Division 1 final, defeating the U-18s 3-2 in the playoff championship. The Select team also did well in 2010, winning the competitive division at the Kamloops Invitational tournament.
Ames said the league will likely continue the split season format in coming years. She would like to adopt a promotion/relegation system which would move the top teams up a division and drop the teams with the worst records down a division, following the spring season.
After some early-season worries about a drop in registered players in the league, the numbers have climbed rapidly the past few weeks to about 450, about the same as in 2010, Ames said.
n The PGWSA will host a skills clinics on June 11 and July 16, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Northern Sport Centre. The cost is $20 for non-members of the Sport Centre and free to NSC members. The first skills session, planned for May 28, was cancelled due to UNBC's convocation ceremony.
