The Keyano Huskies Women's Soccer and Futsal program is adding more local talent to their lineup ahead of the 2023-24 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Regular Season.
Midfielder Kiera Thomas has committed to the Huskies for next season, joining the championship-winning program from École McTavish Public High School.
"It feels rewarding after playing soccer for so many years," Thomas said. "It was cool to see them succeed and win games."
Thomas earned a Silver Medal in the High School City Soccer Championship this year as part of the Marauders' squad. Off the pitch, she captured the Gold Medal in the Women's five-kilometer race at the 2022 Fort McMurray Marathon, also placing sixth overall among all competitors in her distance.
"Any time that we get to add local talent, we jump right on it," said Head Coach Niels Slotboom. "It's not only good to promote soccer here and give a pathway or show a pathway to players here. It's always great to have local players here and not outsource our recruiting.
"She's been with us for an entire year now training, quite a few sessions every week to keep her busy as there's nothing local she can really play on full-time. She's already familiar with the team. It should be a very smooth transition for a first-year player."
Having an opportunity to learn from practicing with the Huskies last year also gave Thomas a good goal to strive towards in terms of elevating her soccer skills.
"It showed me the level that they play at and it's a level I want to play at," she said.
Being able to add Thomas to a roster that already features locals in Kendra Metz and Rofyda Khaleel, Slotboom was hopeful Thomas would be the next McMurrayite to make the step up and serve as a strong example for the growth in youth soccer throughout the region.
"There's some really good people involved in minor soccer here," he said. "It's always a struggle when you're in a smaller community and add on top of that that we're in a northern remote area.
"I think there's some really good people here that are doing their best with what they have. You can see as we have some consistently performing players here that are local and Kiera will be another one of those hopefully."
