Local high school hosts varsity soccer tournament

Written By Brian Lockhart

If you're going to play high school soccer this year, you better be in shape.

Schools from District 4, met at Centre Dufferin District High School (CCDHS) for a two-day tournament leading to a season final.

Games were played on the main field at CDDHS as well as on the soccer pitches at Greenwood Park.

The first day of the tournament was held on Wednesday (Oct. 13) with six schools in the region participating.

With only two days to get it all done, the teams had to play multiple games on each tournament day.

The tournament style play was held to avoid the travel between different schools and towns that would occur in a regular season schedule.

The Centre Dufferin team played two games on Wednesday, then returned for day two of the event on Monday (Oct. 18).

On day two, they played four games, winning two and losing two. They still managed to come out with a 5-1 win in their final game of the day.

“It is due to COVID and travel,” said CDDHS coach Geer Harvey, of why the season was held in a tournament format. “They also struggle with finding coverage and substitute teachers, so it's easier if we do it on two days.”

The two days of games were qualifiers for who would be going to the final game.

“On Wednesday, we won one and lost one,” said coach Deb Walks. “Today we won two and lost one so far. Most of the teams are playing three games each day, but we got four on the second day – that was just the luck of the draw. Today will determine the finalists. We decided to host the whole tournament in Shelburne.”

The Centre Dufferin team followed through and qualified to go to the final.

That will be held on Thursday, October 21.

At press time, the location for that game had not been announced.