There’s more to a season than wins and losses. For St. Timothy High School senior boys soccer coach Kevin Pilling, that’s just the way it is.
He has too many seniors, five this season who started as junior-aged players, to shut them out of a soccer season in their senior year just because they have to take on much larger schools in the Calgary Senior High School Athletic Association.
Even if it means taking a loss or two.
“We realize when we’re up against the big city high schools, we’re going to face a challenge,” Pilling said of his team’s season-opening 5-0 losses to Calgary’s James Fowler and Crescent Heights. “What I like to see is our boys, they never give up. Even though we’re going to play a big school like James Fowler, we come out and we try. We never give up.”
Simply by the numbers, Pilling has to field a team with Grade 10s and 11s at the senior level because he only has five Grade 12s.
“We make no bones about it. We know what we’re up against, so do our boys. When we get a victory, it’s that much sweeter. The kids, young and old, they come out with me in Grade 10 and they stick it out until Grade 12. And if we win three games along the way, then so be it.”
Count Cochrane Generals’ Brydon Beston as one of the guys he’s making sure gets to play in his senior year. The Junior B hockey defenceman plays goal for St. Tim’s Thunder soccer.
“He’s been coming out for me since Grade 10,” Pilling observed. “Getting killed, getting pounded by these big high school teams – I don’t have it in me to let him down.
“As long I have one or two kids in Grade 12 who want to play soccer, I’m there for them.”
And they’re there for him, never laying down. Never giving up.
