And for good reason.
Initial registration has already hit surprising levels, and based on what they’ve seen, things could take off even further if a little bit of good news comes there way on the COVID-19 front.
“We’re at probably our six- to seven-week numbers within three weeks, so the question for us right now is are we going to need to book extra field time at YaraCentre and have extra programming running this indoor season,” said MJSA technical director Jordan Jeffrey.
“So that’s why we’re focussing on indoor while outdoor is going at the same time, trying to bridge that gap, since it’s been a very popular sport for us in the last year… We’ve seen a lot of growth, a lot of improvement in numbers and people coming together and bringing their friends in as well. It’s looking really good all around.”
The MJSA held a special soccer open house on Saturday at Smith Field, running four hour-long sessions for players in the Under-7 through Under-13 groups designed to simply offer a chance to try things out for free.
Even early in the day, a handful of families said they planned to sign up for the indoor season, bringing even more players into the fold.
And that’s exactly what Jeffery wants to see, especially after an outdoor season that saw the local program limited to house league and intra-squad games among their teams due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Saskatchewan government restrictions.
“Hopefully by the time indoor rolls around things will have changed,” Jeffery said. “Indoor doesn’t start until Nov. 1, so we’re a couple months away. If kids go back to school and there aren’t any outbreaks, maybe we’ll be in a position to really start seeing some movement on games happening in other places and other towns.”
The sport didn’t actually get going this summer until July 22, a time when in past years things would have wrapped up at the house league level. And based on what he heard from players, it couldn’t have come at a better time, even in its modified and truncated format.
Youngsters in the Under-9 division play a mini-game during the Moose Jaw Soccer open house on Saturday afternoon.“To be honest, we were just grateful to be back together again,” Jeffery said matter-of-factly. “It’s been hard for a lot of people and some were really struggling. For them to say they were tired of gaming and wanted to get out of the house, you know they’ve been gaming too much, and they were struggling with how the world was for awhile.
“But I think it’s helped everybody find a new-found appreciation for togetherness and friendships and helping each other out, and community spirit is at the forefront of everyone’s minds now. It’s good that we’re back together.”
How the indoor campaign will look is naturally still up in the air. But with things being relaxed and other sports having played near full seasons, Jeffery is hopeful they’ll see the same.
“I believe right now there’s a push for multiple sport and governing bodies to ease restrictions from happening and creating a radius in Saskatchewan so we can play some different teams,” he said.
“We’d like to just be able to play Regina, or even a Weyburn or something like that, just one area to see some different players and teams and games. We might even try some club days where one club comes in and we play everything from U9 to our older teams, we’d love to do just that, it’s something.”
And if provincial championships can be held, you better believe Moose Jaw will be all about that after what happened last season.
“We had two provincial finalists from Moose Jaw last year, one champion and one runner up, so we’re hoping provincials will come around in February again so we can go back-to-back with the one group and hopefully write the wrong with the other group,” Jeffery said.
“It was a very, very successful indoor season from the youngest youth players to the senior youth players. Usually it’s only one of those teams that has that kind of success, but last year it was the whole program and we want to keep building on that and trying to scale up more divisions and become more competitive and put soccer at the forefront of the city.”
