The Red Deer Polytechnic Queen’s and King’s soccer teams are ready to kick off their season in the coming week.
On Sept. 10 both teams will get the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) regular season started at home against the SAIT Trojans.
Queen’s head coach Mahziar Peyrow said the team is starting to look really good and are still preparing for the season.
“I kept the girls we played in the premier league out of Calgary in the offseason this year to keep us kind of in shape and keep the team together so we were able to carry forward,” he said. “Our new signings we brought on they’re fitting in really well and we’ve been training quite hard and getting ourselves prepared.”
The Queens have 12 returning players with seven fresh faces joining the squad. Among those returning are Danyelle Bouvier, Tristen Clubine, Alisha Coules, Corbynn Fujimoto, Jaden Humphrey, Paige Kalbfleisch, Lexi Kowalchuk, Estel Quinteros, Sofia Quinteros, Grace Smith, Jenica Swartz, and Kayla Yeo.
The new signings are Kailey Clark, Samantha Shortt, Erica Navarro, Abby Kotyk, and Kyra Remekie. They’ve also signed two international students including Sein Furuyama from Japan and Janet Perez from Mexico. Furuyama signed with the Queens last season but was unable to come because of the pandemic. This is possible because Peyrow has built relationships with agencies that help bring in players who want to play abroad. When Peyrow became the head coach last year after moving over from the Kings team he signed the women’s team their first ever international player.
Most of the players he has come in Peyrow said have previously been playing in Edmonton and Sherwood Park.
The women’s team has played a preseason game against Keyano College with three exhibitions remaining before the end of August. Peyrow said his team looked shaky in the first half but said it was to be expected with new players on the team as well as nerves with it being the first game of the year.
“I was really impressed with how the team came together in the second half and we worked on a lot of stuff previously that showed in the second half of that game and it’s a lot of positives,” he said.
Last season the Queens medaled in the playoffs after finishing third in the province, which he said was impressive. They’re looking to build off that and have a successful season. They want to finish first in the south division and also want to win provincials and then head to nationals.
“Our first game is our most important game for us. Our home opener is against SAIT, they’re the ones that put us out of the running for nationals last year. They’re the team to beat. We’re going to have a good game, I think for the first opening we’re trying to encourage a lot of people to come,” Peyrow said.
There will be beer gardens and food trucks for those in attendance and he said they’re going to need as much support as possible from the community to help start their season the right way at 2 pm
“That really sets the stage for the season for us. If we can overcome SAIT with the home opener, I think this is going to be a great season for us,” he added.
The Kings are in a much different spot this season with a mostly new-look roster..
Head coach Admir Sarcevic, who will serve his first season as the coach of the Kings after he was hired in May, said this year will be a work in progress.
“I’m always optimistic and I tell the guys if you give what you have in every practice and game that’s all we’re asking for… The result is not the priority for this first year it’s more trying to build a team and trying to build a sustainable team that will be here for not just a year but hopefully two or three years,” Sarcevic said.
Sarcevic is not new to the soccer scene in Red Deer. He has helped the Kings and Queens programs in the past with coaching. He was also an avid supporter last year with his son on the team. He was also previously with the Renegades Soccer Club and was the general manager of the city soccer association for 12 years.
The Kings so far have 17 players on the roster with two or three more potentially joining them before the start of the season. The roster to this point has only three returning players with the full roster including Adan Sanchez-Pimentel, Ajdin Sarcevic, Arshdeep Singh, Ashton Chipman, Cristobal Lisba Topia, Garrett Thompson, Grant Johnson, Jaeden Swartz, Jared St. Thomas, Jhojanner Amaris, Jonatan Hernandez, Kaidri Bornyi, Marcel Reisdorf, Nicholas Min, Sesay Sheku, Owen Curtis, and Brian Medina.
Last year the Kings took bronze after finishing third in the province on a shortened season.
It’s a rebuilding year for the Kings but Sarcevic remains hopeful of his team to turn it into more. To say they’re going to be a top-three team is too early to determine. This season it’s important to get the team on the same page with the system they’re going to implement and set their expectations early.
“They haven’t played together and that’s the biggest challenge in the first year when you have so many individually good players to put them together to work as a team that’s the focus of this year,” he added.
The Kings also have three preseason games coming up at the Edgar Center on Aug. 26, 27, and 28 before their regular season opener against the Trojans.
“That’s going to be a good test for us to see where we are before our season kicks off,” he said.
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