As the sunny season winds down, the boys (and girls) of summer are finishing up their last few tournaments on the soccer pitch and baseball diamond in Prince Rupert.
A select few footy players will head to Gitanyow this Labour Day weekend to take part in a northwest regional soccer tourney.
Not having enough players for an entire team to go and thus not being able to play as Rupert’s own PRFC, the athletes will join up with other participating teams once arriving, in order to take part – a not uncommon phenomenon in the region’s play days.
The PRFC United will try and mirror 2014 when they won two championships - the May Gitsegukla soccer tournament and the Battle of the Skeena in Kitwanga. They’ve already defended their championship in Gitsegukla this year and they’ll try and do the same when the Battle of the Skeena tentatively takes place mid-September in Kitwanga.
“The team’s kind of been [in hiatus] since the [Riverboat Days] tournament in Terrace. Everyone kind of went in their own direction or has been working [the past few weeks],” said team manager Shane Swanson.
“If anybody goes anywhere, I think it’ll be the Battle of the Skeena.”
The Rupert soccer community is also looking for players aged 18 – 23 interested in taking part in a committed rep team to represent the city in a potential new northern division of the Pacific Coast Soccer League, an outdoor adult league based in southern B.C.
In order for the division to work, the league needs a minimum of six men’s teams and six women’s teams in the north to form the new expansion. That season would run from April to August and play a total of 18 games.
PRFC has won one tourney this year (Gitsegukla) and taken second-place once (Seafest). They didn’t place among the top finishers at Riverboat Days due to a lack of participants.
On the slo-pitch side of things, two teams from Prince Rupert will attend the Bulkley Valley Kinsmen’s Telkwa BBQ 2015 – a community festival complete with live music entertainment, a demolition derby, beef on a bun barbecue and a softball tournament.
Organizers have lined up Juno award winners Prism and Honeymoon Suite and Country Music Awards (CMA) winner Brett Kissel and the country-rock duo, King and Cash (made up of Jordan Pritchett and Dan Arnold) to headline the event taking place from Sat. Sept. 5 to Mon. Sept. 7.
The Kaien Island Slo-pitch League (KISL) finishes their season on Sept. 26.