As the 2025 outdoor season wraps up, we want to take a moment to celebrate another exciting and successful year for Whyte Ridge Soccer.
This summer, our Youth Soccer Program saw 12 teams take the field, made up of 192 players—51 girls and 141 boys—across various age groups. These teams were guided by an outstanding group of 33 volunteer coaches and collectively played 168 matches throughout the season. The strong commitment shown by our players, coaches, and families truly defined this year. Week after week, our teams brought energy, enthusiasm, and heart to every game.
We’re especially proud that all of our older youth teams—U13, U14, U16, and U18—qualified for the playoffs this season.
Congratulations to the U13 Boys team, who had an incredible season and were crowned Playoff Champions!
Well done to our U16 Boys, who finished as Finalists, and to our U14 Boys and U18 Girls, who had amazing playoff runs and made our community proud with their grit and teamwork on the field.
Our Mini Soccer Program (U3 to U8) also thrived, with 17 teams, 140 young players, and the support of 30 volunteer coaches and 4 incredible activity leaders. These early experiences focused on fun, teamwork, and foundational movement skills that build a lifelong love for sport.
Looking ahead, we want to share that changes are coming next summer with the introduction of Grassroots programming for U8 to U11 age groups. These updates are part of a Canada Soccer-led initiative focused on long-term player development, emphasizing skill-building, fun, and structured play formats. We’ll be working closely with families and coaches to share more information and ensure a smooth transition as we align with this new national framework.
A special thank you goes to Dennis Neufeld and Yevhen Viznytsya who will both be stepping down at the end of this season. Both Yevhen and Dennis have been incredible leaders in our soccer community. Their commitment, countless hours of work have made a big impact. Thank-you to you both.
We also want to recognize the ongoing efforts of our core volunteers: Virginia Fisher, Brant Long, and Raquel Abraham. Our program is strong because of the work and volunteer hours we all put in—thank you for being the backbone of Whyte Ridge Soccer.
As we wrap up the outdoor season, planning is already underway for the Indoor Season. If you’re interested in coaching an indoor team this year, please reach out to Virginia or myself—we’ll be starting the planning process shortly.
Thank you once again to all our players, parents, coaches, and volunteers for making this season a success. We can’t wait to see what’s next!
By: Rod Ali
Whyte Ridge Soccer Director
soccer@whyteridge.ca