Seven Whitehorse United FC teams played in a tournament in Vancouver on April 15-17.

Neil Sedgwick is the Technical Director of Whitehorse United FC.

“I work with the coaches and the players and the club itself to help around the programming and the technical development.”

Sedgwick has been with the club nearly two years. He explains what the SX Cup was about.

“There was a large tournament that goes on a couple of times a year down here (Vancouver). This is the second time that we’ve brought a couple of teams down here. It just allowed us to travel as a club with these travel teams and stay in the same hotel and share an experience together.”

Seven teams, including three U12 teams (two girls’ and one boys’ team), two U14 teams and two U16 teams (one boys’ and one girls’ team each) took part.

There were approximately 15 kids per team.

Sedgwick said the weekend went great.

“These tournaments are about the experience. Some of the younger ones have never played outside of the Yukon and some of them really haven’t played in a competitive game because of COVID, or played outdoors ... because most of their time is indoors. It’s great experience for them and ... as you get older it becomes more of a developmental tool. They get to see where they’re at within their development. So overall, on the field, it was a really good weekend. The results didn’t always go our way but the lessons learned from a player’s standpoint were great and from a coaching standpoint because we always have to remember our coaches don’t get an opportunity to coach in competitive games either, so from a coach development standpoint, it’s a great learning environment as well,” related Sedgwick.

There were teams from Edmonton, Calgary and all over the lower mainland.

“B.C. and Alberta teams, mostly, and that’s generally who populates this tournament,” said Sedgwick.

Sedgwick said the kids all had a great time.

“For most of the teams, there were ups and downs against great teams once you get to these tournaments and you never know who you’re going to play. They played some very tough competition but then other games, they were close games, they were winning games and ... on the field, the kids had a great time.

“On the field, I think it was Saturday, I was getting pictures from coaches because they were at the trampoline park or they were go-carting. They were doing things that they don’t normally get to do and really in the end those are the experiences that these kids will connect with the enjoyment of soccer and they’ll also remember for a very long time, well beyond the score of any soccer game.”

There are plans in the works for the kids to go down there again.

“In our long-term plan, the next opportunity would be Labour Day – that’s when we went last year,” recalled Sedgwick.

“So that gives us a number of months to grow within the Yukon, get opportunities amongst ourselves and then see where we’re at when we go down there again in another five or six months. Certainly, I saw the difference in the teams. We only took a few teams down Labour Day last year and the difference in some of those teams as they mature as youth but also as they mature as soccer players – the difference with how they played the game was immense.”

As for what’s next for the kids, “back into training back at home once we can get outdoors but we’re still training indoors ... but then get outdoors and continue to train, play, try to sort out competitive opportunities for the players where they can play – some of the older ones from 14-up – 11 versus 11, so we have to get creative with that,” said Sedgwick.

“Some of the players who traveled with us, they’re Canada Games age, so they’ll be part of the Canada Games cycle as they move forward towards August,” he added.

Sean Fleming is coaching the Yukon men’s Canada Games team and Sedgwick and Carli Tingstad are coaching the women’s team. Tingstad is the new head coach of the women’s program at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario.

Sedgwick added “it was a really good opportunity for the kids to experience competition outside of the Yukon, have some life experiences ... these tournaments, we hope, motivate them, inspire them to continue to train and stay within the sport and stay connected ... the majority of the players were from Whitehorse, but we had a number of the female players and the two older age teams were from Haines Junction and Dawson (City) and they came in to join the team, so it’s about keeping all those players within the game.”