Strathmore U13 and U15 soccer teams had a chance to show off their talent at the annual Calgary Minor Soccer Association's Family Day Tournament.  Both teams did well, placing third in the tournament, but the way that the teams came to their victories were unique but similar.  The U13 team played their bronze match first with James Watt scoring a couple of goals and the third goal coming from Ronan Plante.  The team did get a little help from an unexpected source.  Angie Boyd with Strathmore Soccer Association talked about the events that led to the extra players, "The U11s did not participate in the tournament, so those four of the players from that team played up, and Ronan was one of them. The U13s definitely would not have been able to get to where they were without the help of the U11 players."  The score against the Foothill Blazers went to a 3 to 3 tie, which led to the 5 versus 5 shootout.

It was an exciting game and then a nail-biting finish to the season Boyd recalls, "First it ended in a tie and then they had the shoot out, the penalty tiebreaker. It was intense, I'll tell you that is the most intense feeling I have ever felt watching that shoot out."  The Strathmore team came out on top and won that match.

The following match was played by the Strathmore U15 team and they had some obstacles to overcome by facing their opponents with a skeleton bench as they were missing some key players to their bench.  The team showed a lot of determination and fought back to tie as well.  The score going into the shootout was 2-2 against the Calglen Whitecaps, and now it was the senior's turn to face the 5 versus 5 shootout.  After another tense moment, they eventually won their bronze medals too.  Even though it is very unusual to have back to back games decided by shootout it is a skill that the team doesn't really practice Boyd said, "Shootouts are actually one of the things we don't necessarily practice hardly ever, and shooting with the ball standing still is one of the easiest things you can do, so we tend to practice on making shots on goal while the ball is on motion."   

The U15 team will play in the Final Four Tournament in March and the outdoor registration deadline for a competitive team is March 20, 2020.