The Lethbridge College Kodiaks soccer teams are coming to town for Soccer Week in the Yukon.

Soccer week takes place Aug. 21-27 at the field turf at F.H.Collins in Whitehorse.

Yukoners on the women's Kodiaks include midfielder Malorie Hanson, forward Sandy Demchuk and keeper Sam Burgiss.

Events during the week include the Yukon Soccer Excel Program, on-field sessions with Yukon Soccer Technical Director Sean Fleming, a college/university recruitment process session with Fleming and Kodiaks' men's and women's soccer coach Sean Carey, and exhibition games between the Kodiaks and Yukon Select teams.

The week finishes off with a free kids soccer camp for ages 6-14 on Aug. 25, and two more exhibition games between the Kodiaks and Selects.

The Star spoke with Fleming, one of the soccer week organizers, Wednesday. He said it was a great effort by Jake and Sarah Hanson to have the Kodiak men's and women's soccer teams coming up to conduct part of their pre-season in the Yukon.

Fleming said the soccer week is the culmination of the efforts of many people.

It takes a village to organize an event like this, as Fleming explained.

"Jake and Sarah Hanson deserve a ton of credit because they're organizing accommodation, food, all this stuff. I'm helping wherever I can in terms of the soccer side of things. I guess it's kind of an all hands on deck."

Fleming said the Yukon Soccer Association wanted to incorporate some coaching and player development activities.

"It's gonna be a great week. I'm also going to be doing some C (coaching) licence work with coaches. So it's really a great way to celebrate our sport."

Fleming said they started the coaching licence program in May.

"It's quite a big commitment from the coaches. We had 11 or 12 from Whitehorse take it on. And so we're now going to continue with that process while I'm there."

They're going to be doing some sessions for the Yukon Soccer Excel Program for players ages 13-18 on Aug. 21 and 23 at 4:30 pm.

"That's a program we're just starting up because we want to get kids that are a little bit more committed, dedicated, a chance to be able to train a little bit more,” related Fleming.

Fleming said there will be exhibition games and practices which people will be able to watch. He'll be doing some coaching during the games as well.

"A lot of great, great things are gonna happen."

Fleming described his role in the event.

"I'll be doing some sessions for the teams, I'll be able to work with their teams. I'm inviting all coaches to come out and watch and observe. I'm going to talk about the sessions after."

Fleming will be doing in-game analysis and working with the coaches during the exhibition games which take place Aug. 22 and 24, as well as on Aug. 25, at the F.H. Collins turf.

"I'll be there on the sideline working with the coaches and giving my opinions."

Fleming said the week is going to culminate on Aug. 25 with the free camp for kids at noon. Registration is at 11:30 a.m.

"I'll work with the two men's and women's teams and do a free camp for kids on Saturday (Aug. 25) at F.H. (Collins) on the field turf there."

Fleming said one of the purposes of the week is to build off of the Canada Summer Games men's soccer team winning the Sport Yukon Team of the Year award, which he called a "tremendous accomplishment.

"And you have two college teams coming up to do their preseason. It's just tremendous, the opportunity.

"I hope that a lot of coaches and parents and players will watch and they come to the camp. There's a lot of experiences that can be had here."

Fleming said Sean Carey coaches both the men's and women's Kodiak soccer teams.

"He seems like a great lad," said Fleming.

The Kodiaks teams will be doing daily team-building activities meant to experience the Yukon.

"I just think it's great they're doing it," said Fleming. "Ourselves at Yukon Soccer are very lucky to have them come up and do that. So that's why we want to make it a celebration of soccer for the week."

Coaches participating in the week include Fleming, Jake and Sarah Hanson and Ash Jordan.

"I'm also going to be mentoring coaches as they watch the sessions," explained Fleming. "I'll be there at the games. I won't be coaching the teams at the games, but I'll be working with the coaches on the sideline, about coaching the game, game analysis and such. So truly, my role is very much on the technical side of giving coaches a mentorship in the game side of it."

Jake Hanson is coaching the men's Selects and Sarah Hanson is coaching the women's Selects.

"It's a great commitment of the adults in Yukon coming out to play those games," said Fleming.

He also sees this as a chance to develop Yukon coaches.

Fleming said the main purpose of the soccer week is to celebrate the sport.

"It's really the chance for player development, coach development, competitive games to be seen, that we may not see up in Whitehorse that often.

"It's all encompassing about all the great parts of our sport, helping motivate kids to play, more coaches to coach and just keep working on the great things going on in soccer in the Yukon, and to continue on with them."

Players and coaches interested in joining in can come out to the F.H. Collins turf during the scheduled events. The schedule can be obtained by contacting Soccer Yukon at admin@yukonsoccer.ca

Fleming added, "We just hope as many people show up as possible to come watch, whether it be a coach, parents or players. It really is for everyone, referees, everyone to have a chance to celebrate the game.