Scarborough councillor coaches boys under-13 team

Print

E-mail

Text

Having already made lots of noise in their Central East Soccer League this season, Ward 35 (Scarborough Southwest) Councillor Adrian Heaps and his high-flying Clairlea-Westview boys under-13 team look to be in pretty good shape for this weekend's Robbie International Soccer Tournament.

"We had a great experience last year, even though we didn't win our games," said the councillor, a coach with the team for three years. "Everyone is very eager to come back this year with a renewed vigor. We're looking to do things bigger this time."

Heaps, who has a son on this year's team, has made the Robbie tournament an annual rite, but this year may be the first time his team can look at it as anything other than a learning experience.

"They are a great bunch of kids and they truly represent the multicultural makeup of Scarborough," Heaps said of his team, which is currently 3-0 in league action with scores of 11-1, 7-1 and 3-2.

The team kicks off its Robbie campaign this weekend against Scarborough Soccer Association counterpart West Rouge Storm, at the Milliken Complex on Saturday at 10:15 a.m.

The Wolverines move on later in the day to face Ottawa Internationals Eagles at 2 p.m. and return to meet Burlington Bandidos at 10:15 a.m. on Sunday.

The Wexford Scorpions and Olympic Flame Zeus will also represent Scarborough in the U13 division at the Robbie.

"We're going to go in there and see what we can do," Heaps said of this weekend. "Hopefully it'll raise the level of our game when we go back into league play."

The east end club for which the Wolverines play, said Heaps, has taken an unconventional approach to serving soccer to youth in Scarborough.

"It's a unique club that started out many years ago as a church league to get kids off the street," he said, pointing out that it adopts the philosophy that no child gets left behind.

"If a kid cannot afford to play, they will pay and provide the facilities, and in return you have to give some kind of equity back such as being trained as a referee or helping out in some other areas. It's kind of a bit like Habitat for Humanity."