Soccer Picking up Steam in the Border City

Soccer picking up steam in the Border City

Published originally in the Meridian Booster

Posted By Carl Carter
September 22nd, 2009

With Lakeland College soccer and futsal teams taking the field next year head coach Mick Gale has been a busy man, but the work he’s putting in is already paying dividends.

(Link to article) 

Gale has been busy on the recruiting trail and has rounded up a good amount of talent to play on both the soccer and futsal teams. The programs also got a bonus treat, as two of their recruits were named to Team Canada’s Under-20 soccer program.

“The first week here and we’ve already got two guys named to the national team, that’s fantastic,” said Gale. “We got the quality here, we’ve definitely got it, and now I want to build it into something.

“These kids coming out of the woodwork are kids I didn’t even know about, and that’s a big plus.”

The players named to the U20 program are goaltender Tyson Farago and forward Amos Ganyea – two university-transfer students who should play prominent roles in the Rustlers soccer and futsal teams.

“I didn’t believe it at first, it was unreal. I was involved with U17 but I didn’t think U20 would take me,” said Ganyea. “There’s some U20 workouts coming next year, so I just have to get ready for that and Mick’s going to help me out.”

Gale also got some additional help with Pedro Daza coming on board as is assistant. Together they have been putting the soccer players through their paces as they prepare for both next year’s soccer season and the upcoming futsal season.

“From what I’ve seen there’s a lot of talent here and a lot of potential, it’s just a matter of unifying the talent and making a strong team,” said Daza, who was a developmental coach of the year in Manitoba. Daza added it was an easy decision to come out to Lloydminster to help Gale in building soccer and futsal programs from scratch. “The man has so much knowledge so I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to come here and learn, and bring some of the stuff I learn back to Manitoba.”

For now the players are just in training, and it’s a pretty hectic schedule as they take futsal training in the morning and soccer in the afternoon, but Gale stresses there is some method to his madness. With futsal season coming up first in January, Gale wants the team to be ready for a championship drive in their first season.

“We’ve got the big championship coming up in January and I aim to win. We want to hit everything with a bang,” said Gale, adding they want to get passed the learning curve fairly quickly. “(Futsal) is very exciting, it’s a very animated sport with lots of movement. It’s very fast paced, good tempt, and good for developing soccer players.”