WEYBURN – The City of Weyburn has a few jewels to show off to the world – well, the province, anyway – and this past weekend showed one of Weyburn’s finest jewels at its best and brightest.
About 320 soccer players on 32 teams, ranging in age from U9 up to U17-19, converged on Weyburn’s Credit Union Spark Centre from Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon, for the Weyburn Soccer Association’s first ever Winter Soccer Showcase.
Joining Weyburn’s soccer teams were boys and girls teams from Yorkton, Swift Current and Moose Jaw, and put the Mainil Field to good use for the entire weekend with a full schedule of games.
Catching Weyburn Soccer’s president, Jason Roy, during one of the games on Saturday, he said many of the families who came have never seen the Spark Centre before, and he pointed out that the visitors were blown away by what we have here.
Most places don’t have a facility like this, he added, and they were impressed.
It should be noted that these other cities paying a visit here are all bigger than Weyburn, with established soccer programs that have more kids playing than we have.
In other words, this is a majorly good thing we have here, and we showed ourselves in a positive light for many families from around the province who might otherwise never have come here.
And, as is true for many of the tournaments hosted in this city, the families stayed overnight here, ate in our restaurants, bought gas and other necessities while they were here, and enjoyed some good soccer action in our facility.
Before this facility was built, Weyburn players could practice once in a while in a school gym, not on a real soccer field, and had to travel to one of these other cities (or Regina or Saskatoon) to play during the wintertime.
The potential we have for premiere sports events is far more than even just soccer, and with great school and skating facilities, Weyburn can groom herself as a prime destination for recreation and culture events of all kinds.
This would help show off our other jewels, like the Weyburn Comp and Legacy Park, River Park, Jubilee Park, Crescent Point Place, the Weyburn Art Gallery … we’ve got a lot to offer.
