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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.

鈥淚 work with the coaches and the players and the club itself to help around the programming and the technical development.鈥�

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

鈥淭here was a large tournament that goes on a couple of times a year down here (Vancouver). This is the second time that we鈥檝e 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.鈥�

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

There were approximately 15 kids per team.

Sedgwick said the weekend went great.

鈥淭hese tournaments are about the experience. Some of the younger ones have never played outside of the Yukon and some of them really haven鈥檛 played in a competitive game because of COVID, or played outdoors ... because most of their time is indoors. It鈥檚 great experience for them and ... as you get older it becomes more of a developmental tool. They get to see where they鈥檙e at within their development. So overall, on the field, it was a really good weekend. The results didn鈥檛 always go our way but the lessons learned from a player鈥檚 standpoint were great and from a coaching standpoint because we always have to remember our coaches don鈥檛 get an opportunity to coach in competitive games either, so from a coach development standpoint, it鈥檚 a great learning environment as well,鈥� related Sedgwick.

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

鈥淏.C. and Alberta teams, mostly, and that鈥檚 generally who populates this tournament,鈥� said Sedgwick.

Sedgwick said the kids all had a great time.

鈥淔or most of the teams, there were ups and downs against great teams once you get to these tournaments and you never know who you鈥檙e 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.

鈥淥n 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鈥檛 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鈥檒l also remember for a very long time, well beyond the score of any soccer game.鈥�

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

鈥淚n our long-term plan, the next opportunity would be Labour Day 鈥� that鈥檚 when we went last year,鈥� recalled Sedgwick.

鈥淪o that gives us a number of months to grow within the Yukon, get opportunities amongst ourselves and then see where we鈥檙e 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 鈥� the difference with how they played the game was immense.鈥�

As for what鈥檚 next for the kids, 鈥渂ack into training back at home once we can get outdoors but we鈥檙e 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 鈥� some of the older ones from 14-up 鈥� 11 versus 11, so we have to get creative with that,鈥� said Sedgwick.

鈥淪ome of the players who traveled with us, they鈥檙e Canada Games age, so they鈥檒l be part of the Canada Games cycle as they move forward towards August,鈥� he added.

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

Sedgwick added 鈥渋t 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鈥檚 about keeping all those players within the game.鈥�