Felix Steele-Masson became the fourth Yukoner to win a B.C. Provincial Championship in youth soccer recently, and the first to do it at the U17 level.

The Yukoner was playing for Mountain United, based out of the North Shore and Burnaby.

Steele-Masson, a centre-back, was surprised to hear he was the first U17 B.C. provincial champ from the Yukon.

“I didn’t actually know that. It feels good. It was a pretty fun tournament.”

The tourney was played at Coquitlam’s Town Centre Park in late June.

Steele-Masson described his team’s path to glory.

“How the playoffs work is we play a regular season in the B.C. SPL, B.C. Soccer Premier League. And then after that regular season, you’re seeded one to seven in our league. First place gets a bye.

“I think we were fourth, so we played the fifth-seeded team in the quarterfinal and we won that game 3-nil, pretty comfortable game, and then the semi final, we played the second-ranked team, I guess, Fusion. That was a pretty good game. So we beat them 2-1, very even game.

“They actually scored first in the 20th minute, I’d say, and then we got a red card and then we came back 2-1 playing with a man down for 60 minutes. So that was a pretty good game for us as well.

“In the final, we played Surrey, who had won the league. They had only lost one game in the regular season and then we beat them 5-1 in the final. We came out with all guns blazing.”

Needless, to say, winning the championship felt pretty good.

“Our team was buzzing. It was super-good. Everyone was really happy and yeah, U17 provincial champion is pretty important, because now it qualifies us for nationals next year.”

Steele-Masson was pleased with his performance as well.

“I was very happy with how I played in the final and throughout the playoffs. It was good.”

Steele-Masson said the key of victory was that they were “a really close-knit group and really fought for each other throughout the playoffs.”

Steele-Masson was pretty excited about playing in the Canadian Club National Championships in Moncton Thanksgiving weekend.

“They’ll be a really good opportunity for our team and hopefully it goes well.”

Masson is billeted in North Vancouver. This is his first year there. He spent last year in Edmonton.

As for his future plans, Masson said he eventually would like to turn pro.

“Maybe I’ll hopefully go to a university, get a degree … and then hopefully play professional one day. Just take it as far as I can.”

Previously, Ole Heath won the B.C. Provincials with Mountain United’s U16 team in 2017.

Callum Weir and Joe Hanson captured the title with the U16 Vancouver Island Wave in 2019.