Moose Mountain Soccer Club (MMSC), based in Carlyle, won a provincial competition June 29 and gained the title of Soccer Town Saskatchewan.
The club is very proud and excited to have won first place in the competition and is looking forward to using their prize money to take their club even further.
The competition, which had over a dozen clubs participating, was hosted by the Saskatchewan Soccer Association (SSA) in co-ordination with Living Sky Sports and Entertainment Inc. It consisted of sending in a video which demonstrated each soccer club鈥檚 passion for the game and their support for the expansion of the sport in Saskatchewan.
It was especially to show support for the implementation of a professional team and stadium in Saskatchewan. The grand prize for the winner was $5,000 towards facility and equipment improvements.
Scott Kirkness, the media co-ordinator for the MMSC, was the main creator of the video, and explained how its contents were meant to show the club鈥檚 enthusiasm for the growth of soccer in Saskatchewan. Since the competition was meant to show support for the expansion of soccer, Kirkness focused on how the players in their soccer club today could go on to play soccer in even greater ways.
鈥淭he idea of the video was that we鈥檙e showing soccer from the grassroots 鈥� Saskatchewan Soccer Association鈥檚 been around (since) 1905. The game has a long, long standing presence in Saskatchewan, so I thought if we used younger, smaller athletes for the video 鈥� the whole idea was if we have our own pro-team in the province, they have room to grow and somewhere to go and play as pros, so that was kind of the idea behind the video.鈥�
The video consisted of several clips of little kids from the club playing and having fun, with many shots taken from the grass 鈥� continuing the theme of soccer from the Saskatchewan grassroots. The video also included a poem, which Kirkness wrote, about the different themes the club wished to highlight. Overall, the club only had about a week to plan and create the video after they heard about the competition, but their time and effort paid off so that they were able to win a great amount of prize money for improvements within their club.
The last couple of years have also been quite difficult for the club, with lots of transitions within their board, but also with COVID-19 challenges. Therefore, the board members explained that winning the competition has allowed the club to feel a bit better about where they are headed, and they hope that this competition will highlight their club.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 given us a boost in just morale and 鈥� encouraged us to keep going cause we鈥檝e been trying really hard as a board to get the club going again and working hard together to 鈥� take it to another level and make it a bit more of a well-known club and be able to compete with more ages and just grow the club,鈥� explained Krista Meisner, the treasurer for the Moose Mountain Soccer Club.
The club also had a great need for funds in order to make improvements, so the prize money itself will be important for the soccer club as it goes forward. The board has already started discussing ideas and are overall just grateful to be able to use the funds to take their club to the next level. For now, they hope to replace some equipment鈥攕uch as their soccer nets, but in future, they also hope to think about other projects, like getting bleachers.
To see the club鈥檚 winning video, or to know more about the club itself, go to the Moose Mountain Soccer Club Facebook page.
