The Nipissing District Soccer Club is hosting its inaugural soccer festival on Saturday.
Sixteen total teams of boys and girls in the U9 to U12 age groups will be competing at the Omischl Sports Complex.
A dozen teams are from out town, including Barrie and South Simcoe.
Club President Mark Hopper says hosting a festival like this requires approval from Ontario Soccer, and work that was done last year helped them out.
“The reason why we’re able to do this was with working with the Health Unit last year with the return to play protocols that we put in place as a club,” Hopper says.
He says those protocols were part of a write-up on the club in the Ontario Soccer Spotlight Magazine last fall.
Hopper says they’ve set up safety guidelines not only for their teams but for other Huronia District Soccer Association (HDSA) clubs to come here to play too.
The festival runs from 9 am to 5 pm tomorrow and he says it’s been a while since some of the kids have played a competitive game.
“We just started two weeks ago and at this festival, we’re going to have some age groups that haven’t played yet, some [who last played] two years ago, some who never have and some [played] maybe a week ago,” Hopper says.
He says these are busy times for the players and their families after getting their schedules a couple of weeks ago.
“They like the competition, which is good, they get exposed to good soccer but also coming to the other side of the pandemic it’s been a little tough. It’s like we went from zero to 100 miles per hour within a month,” Hopper says.
He says moving from Soccer Northeast to the HDSA has its benefits.
“You go from North Bay to North Toronto where teams have been on the competitive level, the recreation and developmental level for a long time. We tried to migrate to that district to benefit our members the most. Having the higher calibre of play week in and week out means that they get better,” he says.
Hopper says they’re on a one-year probationary period with HDSA and hope to stay.
The local adult soccer club and select clubs merged to form the new Nipissing District Soccer Club.
