Keeping a popular school tradition alive, the Cochrane Cobras boys' and girls' soccer teams capped off the 2022 season with a spirited inter-squad match on June 8.
Carolyn McLeod, who coaches both of the high school's soccer teams (the girls in the fall and the boys in the spring) said as usual, the boys-versus-girls game got a little bit rowdy, resulting in the need for some rather unconventional refereeing on her part.
“I always want to mix and mash the teams so it’s sort of a co-ed thing, but no, they just want to do the old-school boys-versus-girls, so that’s what we did," she said, adding the game ended in a 5-5 tie.
“I was reffing and had to do some creative reffing toward the end just so it wouldn’t get too out of hand, but it was actually quite even in the game. We did a shootout in the end, so it was pretty fun.”
While the Cobras' girls – who won the Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) banner in October 2021 – haven't played together in several months, the boys' team only recently ended their 2022 season.
The results didn't always go the Cobras' way this spring – the team finished the regular season in sixth place of the seven-team league, with a 2-4 regular-season record. But despite not amassing many wins, McLeod said it was a positive campaign overall.
“It was really up and down – we had some really good matches and then we had some hard ones, too," she said.
The coach added the team's main problem seemed to be putting the ball in the net.
"We might dominate the whole game, but finishing was sort of our struggle,” she said.
According to McLeod, the Cobras did demonstrate plenty of improvement throughout the season, and referenced beating the Bert Church Chargers in the regular season as one of the campaign's highlights. The Airdrie school ended the regular season in first place and then finished the playoffs in second.
McLeod also brought up Cochrane's two games against Chestermere as evidence of the team's growth. While the Lakers beat the Cobras 2-0 during their regular-season encounter, she said the Cobras faced the Chestermerians again in the playoff quarterfinals and took the game all the way to a penalty shootout.
"We lost in the shootout, [but] it was good that we were able to match them so evenly," she said. "Unfortunately, we came out on the wrong end of the shootout.”
Coming off two cancelled high-school soccer seasons as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, McLeod said the Cobras' boys soccer team was simply excited to return to the pitch this spring and relished the opportunity to don the maroon jerseys once again.
“The team we had, it was three years after [the last season] so it was kind of a rebuild," she said. "I guess that was kind of the case for everyone in the league. But we have a young team and we’re looking forward to next year, gathering up what we’ve got."
She touted the positive attitudes expressed by the players throughout the 2022 season, adding they all exhibited the three Cs – character, commitment, and community – that are integral to Cochrane High's athletics programs.
"The season and scores might have not gone our way, but I couldn’t have asked for a better group to work with," she said. "As coaches, it was a pretty awesome season. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed working with them. They’re solid characters all around.”
The Springbank Phoenix ultimately won the RVSA, defeating the Bert Church Chargers 2-1 in the championship game on June 7, in Cochrane.
