By almost any logic the Sutherland Sabres senior boys soccer team would be considered the favourite to win the AAA provincial title this season when the championship tournament is held in late November.
After all, the Sabres won gold last season with a team that contained only three Grade 12 players. Eleven championship players are back for more on a seniorladen team that has only one Grade 10, one Grade 11 and the rest are Grade 12s. With that in mind you could excuse the Sabres if they were already making hotel reservations for this year's tournament, choosing what hairstyles they'd like to wear for the championship final and picking out potential body parts for their "Back-2-Back" commemorative tattoos.
As long as head coach Bill Mahon is in charge, however, the Sabres will be doing none of those things.
"We're not doing anything," Mahon said about repeat planning. "We're just trying to be low key and do our business game-by-game."
The coach, in fact, sees a tougher road for the team this year than last when the Sabres were able to sneak up on opponents.
"I think everybody is going to be ready to have a go at us," he said. "It's always tougher after you win. There'll be no easy games because everyone is going to be up to play us."
The title defence is going well so far — the Sabres went to work following the resolution of the labour dispute and have looked good in posting a 4-1 win over Carson Graham in exhibition play and a 4-0 shutout against West Van to open the regular season last Thursday. Mahon, however, has continued to preach that the team needs to focus on the next game on the schedule, not the last one on the schedule.
"I've got to make sure we take each game one at a time," he said. "I know it sounds stereotypical but they can't get full of themselves.... We don't want to give anybody else any fodder to have a go at us. Trying to be low key and not brag and things like that, I think, is really important."
When asked to evaluate his own team, in fact, Mahon immediately jumped to one minor weakness instead of listing their numerous strengths.
"We're not a tall team so I do have some concerns," he said, "like playing Handsworth who have two centre backs who are over six-foot-four. On dead ball kicks when we're defending them we're going to be in for a bit of a challenge. We'll see how things go."
The Sabres did lose last year's captain and team backbone Cole Keffer to graduation and will also have to play much of this season without Michael Girard who was named the top goaltender at last year's provincial tournament. The Grade 12 goalie trains in the Whitecaps youth system and is barred from competing for the Sabres until they make it to the provincial championships.
With those disclaimers out of the way, however, the Sabres do seem ready to make a fierce title defence. There is plenty of talent left from the team that won it all and they are all one year smarter and stronger. Leading the way are forward Dzenan Bezdrob and midfielder Travis Ladhar, a pair B.C. Soccer Premier League players for Mountain United. Bezdrob and Ladhar supplied the goals in Sutherland's thrilling 2-1 win over Burnaby Central in last year's championship final.
"They were both key guys last year," said Mahon. "They're very good players."
The rest of the lineup is stocked with Premier, Metro and Gold level players as well. It's a testament to that talent that Sutherland has chosen to play at the AAA level despite having a AA-sized school. The Sabres jumped up to the tougher AAA league last year and there was no consideration given to going back to AA this year.
They will, however, have their hands full on the North Shore with matchups against perennial powerhouses such as Handsworth and Argyle. Sutherland's season continues Thursday when they'll host Sentinel, another traditionally tough team, for a 4 p.m. kickoff.
"It's a tough group to come out of," Mahon said of the North Shore league. "(Last year) the games were tight and I don't expect anything different this year."
They're not taking anything for granted but the Sabres are at least happy that they will get the chance to defend their title — while the team was shut down during the labour dispute, Mahon heard from several of his players who were antsy to get the season going.
"I was getting phone calls at home during the strike," said Mahon. "They're anxious. They're looking forward to it."
