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Soccer is King and Queen for the NAIT Ooks
by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips
10/02/2012...Edmonton, Alberta - Soccer is King and Queen for the NAIT Ooks.
The Canadian Colleges Athletic Association men’s and women’s soccer rankings came out this afternoon and the Ooks are at or near the top.
In men’s rankings the NAIT Ooks remain at No. 1 while the NAIT Ooks still sit at No. 2 behind the College Francois-Xavier-Garneau Elans from Quebec.
It is the College Francois-Xavier-Garneau Elans and NAIT Ooks women’s duel that is the most interesting.
Last year the Ooks were ranked No. 1 the entire season with the Elans always close by and during the last two years the rankings proved right as both teams made it through their respective conference finals and then CCAA round robin to meet in the championship with the Elans winning both times 2-1 in 2011 and 3-0 in 2010.
The Elans are a dynasty of sorts having stood on the CCAA women’s national championship gold podium a record six times since 2000.
Ooks women’s soccer coach Carole Holt (right) hopes the return match-up will present itself in the eight team tournament which will take place November 7-10, 2012 at Terry Fox Sports Complex in Cornwall, PEI and hosted by the Holland College of Charlottetown.
Is there any pressure for Carole Holt to return to the CCAA podium?
“If I said “No” that would probably be a lie but it is a good situation to be in as Sergio did a great job recruiting even though we lost five or six players…he left me with a nice gift there,” said Holt, who replaced long time Ooks coach Sergio Texiera who stepped aside to concentrate on family. “Our roster is small, only 18 players and we have been doing well with the players that we have.”
Doing well may be a wee bit of an understatement as the Ooks are undefeated in six games with five wins and one tie sporting 20 goals for and five against.
Holt, who has a National B licence and was head coach of the Concordia Thunder when they first competed in the ACAC, said it is not the “team” but “the program” which vaults the Ooks into the national spotlight.
“They have done a great job developing the program and just not the team,” said Holt, an off campus coach who works for KidSport Alberta. “Recruiting has also been the key here.”
One of the players Holt will look to is Leanne Kadatz….a scoring machine.
How many goals has Kadatz scored in her previous three seasons as a NAIT Ook women’s soccer team before entering the 2012 season?
Well, put it his way, if you take the 120 regular season games of the Keyano Huskies and Kings Eagles women’s teams (2006 – 2011) and combined all of their goals. Kadatz on her own would only be four goals behind!
That’s right. One player has totalled 55 goals in only 29 games!
“Seriously every time she gets the ball she is trying to score,” said Holt, a former player herself as a star midfielder for the University of Alberta Pandas. “She scores all types of goals in that she is not one dimensional. She will shoot from distance, challenge in the air and challenge one on one.”
“She is the type of player that competes all the time she doesn’t turn off.”
NAIT Ooks men sport a record of six wins with 21 goals for and only two against.
