Due to the closure of Timberlane Park for renovations Powell River Villa has decided to move to Cranberry field for the year.
“I guess the heavy use at Timberlane has forced the city to close it for the year,” said coach Chris McDonough, “but we are happy to have secured Cranberry.”
The decision to go with the pitch at Cranberry over the turf at Brooks was made for a couple of reasons.
“We are a young, fit team,” explained McDonough, “and the larger pitch works to our advantage. That and the fact that Cranberry is more fan-friendly really made our decision quite easy.”
Plans are being made to move a couple of bleachers in for those fans. Home games will, as usual, be at 1:30 pm on Sundays.
With the venue in place the team has been training for a few weeks and expects to field a strong contender for Vancouver Island Soccer League division 3B.
Division 3 is composed of 20 teams and split into two divisions, A and B, of 10 teams each.
This year Villa will battle Gorge FC, Fernwood Town, Cordova Bay, Penelakut United, PLSC Lakers, Alberni Athletics, Juan de Fuca, FC Sagres and Lakehill Danger Police for the one promotion spot available.
Villa’s youth gained some experience over the summer as Billy Bagiopoulos joined a Whitecaps residency team for four days and Brodie Harry strutted his stuff for college recruiters at a Victoria Highlanders camp. Both will return to Powell River to boost a team that finished mid-pack last year.
Players who have left Villa either for school or work include Jordan Peters and Ben Elliot.
While the loss of those players will be felt, the lineup will get a boost from a couple of ESL students and the return of veterans Daniel Paul and Kye Taylor.
“I’ve got a few things on the go here,” Taylor said, “and the move home of course.”
While, in the past, his leadership was always a huge asset, he points to support from others this time around.
“It’s neat to see now as a veteran,” he stated, “some of these guys who were just pimple-faced high school kids, now graduated from school and running drills and taking over.”
Recent years have been a struggle for Villa but Taylor sees this year as being a turning point.
“We’ve had a bit of a decline but I think we’ve done well to just keep it afloat and maintain good quality soccer overall,” he said. “It seems like this group has bought into our ideas. We don’t want to see it go the way of the senior men’s league. Whatever we can do to keep it operating, we’re going to try to do that.”
Taylor takes over the captaincy from Dean Thorsell this year while Thorsell assumes a player/coach role.
CHIP SHOTS: Villa’s Bagiopoulos scored in a 3-1 exhibition loss to Division One Comox.
