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HAY RIVER
Athletes from the across the NWT flocked to Hay River this past weekend to vie for first place in an annual community soccer tournament.

The Thomas Simpson School junior girls soccer team took on St. Pat's during a tournament in Hay River over the weekend. During the game, Fort Simpson's Newmoon Buggins, right, chases the ball. The teams tied 1-1 and the girls from Fort Simpson came up short in their other two games. - Myles Dolphin/NNSL photo

Youth from Thomas Simpson School in Fort Simpson and Deh Gah School in Fort Providence were among the participants looking to take home the gold at the Elks Outdoor Soccer Championships. Both teams ended up short.

Deh Gah School coach Caley Bell said it was a great learning experience for her team, which played in the senior boys A division, a level higher than they are used to.

"It was definitely a development weekend for them," Bell said. "They learned new moves and they start to realize what they do in practice isn't just for fun. They actually have to apply what they've learned."

Player Spencer Bonnetrouge, 16, said he saw the team grow too.

"We started to communicate a lot more, started passing, started playing smart," he said.

This was the team's second year playing outdoor soccer. They picked up three players from Fort Resolution to complete the team. Bell said it was a challenge taking on new players that the kids hadn't yet had a chance to play with but the kids still found a way to gel.

At next year's tournament, Bell said, she hopes to see them win at least one of the games.

Thomas Simpson School's coach Kristen Morrison said she also saw her players come a long way.

"At the beginning everybody just goes for the ball. It's a complete clump. They use about one-fourth of the field and by the end of it they finally spread out and go sideline to sideline and communicate with each other," she said. "It always goes that they start to gel by the end of the tournament."

Thomas Simpson School had a team of more than a dozen 15-year-old girls and also contributed players to four teams from Fort Smith.

The junior girls tied against St. Patrick High School from Yellowknife but lost their two other games. Nonetheless, Morrison said the last game was impressive.

At first they were down by two goals but then the girls decided to fight for the win, she said. They tied the score twice before the team from Behchoko beat them 4-3 with only a short amount of time left in the game.

"It was a battle to the end and all the girls stepped up," she said. "Their play was considerably different in that game than the other ones but again it takes time to get to that level and we only have pretty much three weeks of practice before they go there."

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