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By Dan Plouffe
A pair of Ottawa South United Force soccer teams enter the 2014 Ontario Youth Soccer League season with a target on their backs – unfamiliar territory for local soccer teams.
But the region’s first OYSL and Ontario Cup titles last season broke new ground in the league traditionally dominated by Toronto-area teams, and put the word out loud and clear that Ottawa clubs can compete with the best.
If opponents are going to come harder against the defending champions, that’s just fine in the view of OSU club head coach Paul Harris.
“The one thing we’re trying to do at OSU is raise the bar,” indicates Harris, a coaching product of Everton FC’s academy program. “I believe we can get players not only to Canada’s national team, but also to Europe.”
Several members of the OYSL-champion Force team that is now headed into the U17 boys’ division have indeed moved on to bigger stages, which includes professional academies in Canada and England, and youth national team appearances.
They’re one of five OSU squads who will compete in the OYSL this season, which is three more than any other local club.
“The problem before was everyone wanted to take their team all the way through,” Harris details. “What we try and do now is put coaches in certain places that meet their skills in terms of development, with everyone adding a little bit to the jigsaw.”
The other OSU group that made history last year was the 2000-born girls, who will now make their provincial league debut with an Ontario Cup trophy in their back pockets.
FC Capital United, whose graduating group of U17 girls won an OYSL east division and a historic Quebec-Ontario Cup last season, will also field a team in the U14 girls’ ranks.
There probably isn’t a local team that understands the story of a target on their backs better than the OSU U16 girls, set to enter their third OYSL campaign. The Force were east division champions two seasons ago (although a controversial boardroom decision to strip them of one of their victories prevented them from playing in the league final), but dropped down into a tie for third last season. The Nepean Hotspurs will also compete in the U16 ranks.
Joined by the Gloucester Hornets in the division, the OSU U14 boys are eager to test themselves against provincial opponents after a perfect 17-0 run against the east region last season, when they outscored their opponents by a combined 141-9.
The Force’s final entry comes in the form of their U15 girls, who will look to build on their fourth-place showing in OYSL competition last season. The Cumberland Cobras U15 girls will make their inaugural OYSL appearance in the same category.
The back-to-back-to-back East Region Cup-champion Gloucester Hornets U17 girls will also make their OYSL debut this year.
After being relegated in their first foray into the OYSL, the Capital United U16 boys are back for a second taste of the top provincial level.
Making OYSL debuts as the lone local entries in their divisions are the Ottawa Fury U18 girls and the West Ottawa Warriors U15 boys.
The OYSL season kicks off on May 10.
OPDL kicks off inaugural season
The Ontario Player Development League made its highly-anticipated debut on May 3 in Kingston, with Nepean, OSU and West Ottawa kicking off in U13 boys’ play and the same three clubs along with the Fury on the U13 girls’ side.
The new league, which will eventually phase out the OYSL, removes promotion/relegation in favour of granting entry to clubs that meet stringent standards for facilities, coaching, administration and organizational financial stability.
Results from the first weekend of OPDL play were not available through the Ontario Soccer Association’s web site (although the Ottawa Pub Dart League may be happy to see a spike in traffic from web users searching for “OPDL results.”) Ottawa hosts its first weekend of OPDL action May 24-25 at George Nelms Sports Park.
—with files from Josh Wegman