Senior Boys Soccer Wins ‘AA’ Provincials

Our Senior Boys Soccer team, a group that consistently beats the odds, shut out Burnaby’s Cariboo Hill Secondary at home in Burnaby, to win GNS’s third consecutive Provincial Championship and GNS’s first ‘AA’ Provincial Championship! After only narrowly beating Windsor Secondary 2-1 in overtime in the semi-finals, GNS came back strongly in the final against Cariboo Hill, with a healthy 2-0 victory. Head Coach Hugh Williams wrote from Burnaby: “I have coached since 1991, and I am not sure I have ever experienced a tournament like this—where every game is on a knife’s edge, and yet where we continue to prevail.” He went on to call the boys “amazing” and “awe-inspiring.” “What a group,” he said. Despite remaining undefeated at Provincials, the road to the championships was not an easy one. BC School Sports divides schools into A, AA, and AAA schools, based on the number of eligible students. To play at the AA level, schools must have between 81 and 225 boys in grades 11 and 12. GNS has 81. Caribou Hill has 181. Sitting at the absolute bottom of the AA numbers, GNS faced schools much larger on the road to Provincials, but came out on top at the Islands, defeating St Michaels University School 4-2, and the team remained on top again at Provincials. The victory speaks to the strength of the GNS soccer program, led by Mr. Williams, and the benefit of training and playing on our turf field, new in 2008. The GNS team has one more important game to play in 2011: the Colonist Cup Final. The Colonist Cup championship combines A, AA, and AAA schools to crown the top team in the city of Victoria. In 2009, GNS became the first ‘A’ school to win the title, and then lost in 2010 in a shoot-out to AAA Claremont. This year, two AA schools will meet, GNS Gryphons and Lambrick Park Lions. The boys will have one week to celebrate this momentous achievement before they are back on the field, hopefully to make history one last time this season!