Players and supporters of Powell River Villa FC gathered on Saturday night, May 7, at the Soccer Centre to present awards to the first club of Vancouver Island Soccer League (VISL) and the reserves of the Men’s Recreational League. Each of the winners received a trophy and gift certificate donated by Al Potesta of the Lockeroom.
Villa Reserve is in its second year and has proven extremely valuable in the development of younger players.
Although it finished first in the league standings it was edged in an exciting championship game by the Sliammon Vipers 2-1.
Nevertheless, the team made great progress and Kye Taylor said at the ceremony, “Next year we hope to build on our success this year.”
Speaking of success, he was the recipient of the VISL Division Two Most Valuable Player Award for the third consecutive year. He acknowledged it humbly and said, “It was kind of unexpected seeing as how we finished, but it’s nice to have and nice to share with the boys. Like I’ve always said before, it’s a team award and you don’t win it without playing for a good team that makes you look good.”
The good team he talked about has a number of stories including himself and David Bertrand joining Nanaimo’s Mid Island Highlanders FC of the Pacific Coast Soccer League. The premier men’s team is an affiliate of Victoria’s Highlanders of the United Soccer League and is scheduled to play throughout British Columbia during the summer.
Other good news includes James Smart who put himself on the National College Scouting Association website last year and got a couple of invites to camps down in the United States. He went to one at Wingate University in North Carolina just to see if he was ready to play at that level and his evaluation proved to be positive.
“I decided that was what I wanted to do,” he said, “so I did my SATs at Brooks [Secondary School] and was contacted by a coach at West Virginia and sent him a video of one of my Villa games. I was offered an international student scholarship which, after everything, amounts to $40,000 dollars over four years.”
The midfielder likes his chances of making the starting lineup and credits Villa for helping him to achieve his goal.
“Playing for Villa, you get the college coaches looking at you and you get a lot of good experience,” he said.
One of his mentors, coach Jamie Zroback, was thrilled for Smart and said, “The news is huge and the main reason being he’s a great kid, a bright kid and it goes to show when you have the combination of skill and dedication you can do anything. He has been with us for four years and it’s kind of a testament to what we’re doing because it’s giving kids results.” That’s important he said because, “it’s almost like a push to work a little bit harder for the kids next year.”
As the awards wound down and people started to leave, talk turned to next year and the new pitch at Timberlane Park.
“Each year it seems like we’re solidifying ourselves,” said Taylor, “and it looks like the new pitch is almost ready to go. With our strong finish last year we’re very excited about next year for sure.”
Unbelievably, as if to reinforce his words, a rainbow appeared across the street on Timberlane Park.
Awards were given as follows:
Villa Reserve
Most Valuable Player: Matt Liknes
Rookie of the Year: Matt Liknes
Most Sportsmanlike: Cale Hernandez and Mason Murray
Most Dedicated: Reese Unger
Most Improved: Grant Campbell
True Grit: Jeff Lawson
Unsung Hero: Paz Hernandez
First Team
President’s Award: Kye Taylor
Most Valuable Player: Kye Taylor
Rookie of the Year: Dylan McLean and Joel Harry
Most Sportsmanlike: Nick van’t Schip
Most Dedicated: James Smart
Most Improved: Grant Campbell
True Grit: Dean Thorsell
Unsung Hero: Jordan Peters
Player Appreciation: Craig Dunbar
Eleanor Verdiel Service Award: Todd Phillips
