By Dan Plouffe
“Dreams really do come true at Disney” is how coach Gord MacGregor puts it after his Ottawa South United under-13 boys’ team came out with a division championship at the Disney Jr. College Showcase Nov. 23-25 in Florida.
“Everybody was so thrilled,” MacGregor says. “They all came out with great memories.”
The first lasting image came from simply setting foot in the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. The young OSU Force players had to go through security to enter through the gates that revealed tons of high-quality fields with permanent stands; simply having an electronic scoreboard on the sidelines was impressive on its own.
“It’s a lot to take in,” MacGregor notes. “The hype and the show that they put on at the park is just beyond what anyone else can do.”
The first-time Disney tournament competitors not only handled the amped-up atmosphere well, they excelled in it. OSU came out flying, scoring an 8-1 win over Greater Boca United in their tournament opener.
The Force stumbled in a 3-2 defeat against a Real Madrid side that overmatched them in size, but rebounded with a decisive 5-1 victory over Georgia’s Southern Soccer Academy to earn the lone second-place wildcard entry into the playoff round that combined the top teams from three pools.
OSU emerged with a 4-1 semi-final victory over their U.S. affiliate club, the Dallas Texans, to set up a matchup with the Atlanta Fire in the final of the “Championship” level division. The Force’s U13 counterparts on the girls’ side also reached the playoff round at Disney thanks to wins over Florida and Atlanta and a tie with West Florida before falling 1-0 in the semis to Georgia’s AFC Lightning.
The boys’ championship match was a “great, great game,” MacGregor recounts, featuring chances on both sides and the best goalkeeper they’ve faced. Finally with around 10 minutes left, Eric Batali played the hero’s role by scoring the game’s first goal.
“One of the greatest things,” MacGregor emphasizes, “was that at the end, every single kid, all 15 that went down, could say that they contributed and did their part.”
The final whistle was especially memorable.
“You expect 12-year-olds to go crazy and laugh and have a good time, but there were actually kids in tears, they were so happy that they won,” MacGregor describes. “I mean, they work so hard. Parents were crying, everyone was so happy. It was a really, really nice moment.”
OSU club head coach Paul Harris also made the trip down and was impressed with the team’s technical and ball-moving abilities, hailing the victory as the product of many years’ work under the club’s development philosophy. MacGregor previously coached just about all players when they were 10 years old, while parents took a photo by a statue of a group that had been together since age 6.
“That adds to it,” signals MacGregor, who visited Universal Studios with many players the day after their win. “There’s just such a camaraderie, and the kids just love being with each other. It’s such a great group.”
But the best part in the coach’s view came when he received e-mails from others who’d been at the tournament praising his team for how nice and polite they were – even in victory.
“Not only did we put some goals in on teams in a very competitive atmosphere, people also recognized that we really pride ourselves on being good sportsmen,” MacGregor underlines. “That is one of the proudest things for me.”