GOOD luck, bad luck, smelly socks and, most of all, effort came into play as the Seycove secondary senior girls soccer team won the first provincial AA title in team history last weekend in Kamloops.
The Seyhawks defeated Okanagan Mission 1-0 in the final Saturday, winning a championship in what is believed to be the team's first ever appearance at the provincial tournament.
"It's hard to actually think that it happened," head coach Sam Stackhouse told the North Shore News, adding that it made for a great drive back to North Vancouver. "Every 15 or 20 minutes there was one of us that said, 'We just won provincials! Can you believe it?'"
Early in the second half of the championship final, tournament MVP and golden boot winner Caitlin Milham found the ball in the middle of a scrum and fired in the only goal of the game.
"It wasn't pretty by any means but I'm not complaining at this point," said Stackhouse. From then on the Seyhawks battened down the hatches as OKM fought to even the score.
"OKM is a really strong team, they're really sound up the middle and really strong at the back," said Stackhouse. "They wanted it so bad but we just tightened up in the back. I don't think that they had one decent shot the entire game. . . . Really we were just kind of trying to defend from there and keep the lead. It was probably the longest second half ever. It just seemed to go on and on and on."
Finally the whistle blew and the trophy was theirs.
The Seyhawks, champions of the North Shore AA league, cruised through the opening rounds of the provincial tournament, outscoring their opponents 14-2 to easily win their pool and advance to the semifinals.
The road got a lot tougher from there, however, as Seycove battled Lambrick Park for a berth in the final. After one half of play Seycove trailed 1-0. With their championship dreams slipping away, the Seyhawks regrouped at halftime.
"I always like to say my thing but I also like to open it up to the girls to see what they have to say," said Stackhouse about her halftime routine. "I have a few girls who are really good at getting the team fired up. They did it and there was no looking back from there."
Within 20 minutes the Seyhawks were up 2-1 and on their way to a win and a berth in the final.
At this point a little good luck came into play. Milham was supposed to leave the tournament after Friday's semifinal - meaning she'd miss the final - to make a prior commitment with the B.C. under-16 provincial team. That game, however, got cancelled, freeing her up to stay and play hero for her high school squad.
"She's super fast, probably one of our fastest players, and really skilled and a really hard worker," Stackhouse said of Milham, who is still just a Grade 10 player. "I think those three things together make her definitely a huge asset to the team. Even though she's a bit younger, she fits in. I've now coached her since Grade 8 and the improvements that I've seen in her as a player and emerging as more of a leader, it's really cool to watch."
That good luck, however, was counterbalanced by a stroke of bad luck in the final when team captain Meagan Pasternak, a Grade 12 player bound for UBC on a soccer scholarship, went down with a knee injury before the end of the first half.
"We came into that game quite nervous already and then when Meagan went down - she's a starting player and she usually plays the whole game so we don't have a lot of players who usually play central midfield," said Stackhouse.
A wave of players stepped up to fill the void. Sam Lung, normally the team's sweeper, moved up to midfield.
"She ended up getting the MVP for that game," said Stackhouse. "She was so strong in the middle there, she had a fantastic game. Over the season she kind of emerged as a leader."
Other players around the park upped their games as well, including Pasternak's little sister Amanda, a Grade 11 winger.
"She was one of the smallest players on the field and she totally stepped up this weekend," said Stackhouse. "In the final she also injured her ankle and I pulled her off for a rest and she was pretty much just standing beside me for the rest of the game saying 'put me in, put me in.' We ended up putting her in for the last bit. Talk about having heart - that girl has huge heart, fantastic character. She put in a huge effort."
Two players who are hockey stars when they're not on the pitch, right defender Siobhan Hewitt-Kenda and forward Nicole Saxvik, took on key leadership roles, said Stackhouse. Saxvik was named to the Commissioner's 11 tournament all-star team.
"All the girls stepped up, it was a huge team effort," said Stackhouse. "We couldn't have done it without every single one of those girls there. They all played really integral roles in the tournament."
Coach Stackhouse played for the Seyhawks just five years ago, joining the coaching staff after graduation and working her way up to the senior team. Championships weren't really on anyone's minds when she was a player but that has certainly changed now.
"It was never really ever a thought when I was a player, we never really had the depth to go (to provincials)," she said. "But it has been a goal of mine. At the beginning of the season I remember sitting down with our other coach Carl (Saunders) and having a talk that if we were going to go, this would be the year. And it was our goal for the whole season to do as well as we could, obviously, with the hopes that we could end up going to provincials. We definitely accomplished that goal in a huge way."
Hence the smelly socks. The players vowed not to wash their uniforms during the provincial tournament as long as they were winning. Championship memories weren't the only things being shared on the trip back to North Van.
"They didn't wash their jerseys or socks or shinpads the entire time," said Stackhouse. "They didn't want to wash the luck out of them. It was a very smelly ride home."
Smelly, but worth every scent.
