The Sudburnia Soccer Club is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary this year, but more than that, the club is ready to mark a special milestone. It’s been a quarter of a century since the club began its commitment to the continued success of soccer for the young people of the Sudbury area, and that means a great deal to everybody that works at the club.
“I think it’s great,” says the head administrator for the club, Natalie Ropp. “Soccer has really grown in Sudbury. I’m quite proud of this club. They’ve done remarkable things to help out the community and everyone else around.” Back in the 1970s, there was no real outlet for local kids to play recreational soccer. That all changed in 1980 when a group of seven people came together to create a local soccer league in which both boys and girls could play soccer just for fun.
That group included Marinus Logtenburg, Ricardo de la Riva, Greg Zorbas, Bob Morris, Barb Lumley, Julio Navarro and Heinz Wagemann. As a result of their hard work, people like Ropp were able to play soccer as they grew up. In fact, Ropp began playing for the club when she was just eight years old and played until she was 18. “It’s a good team sport and it was a good way to stay in contact with friends through the summer,” she remembers.
Now, she just hopes the club continues to improve and expand so more kids can play. “I just want to see the club continue to grow and to keep improving on the soccer skills of the children in Sudbury because we feed the competitive leagues.” This year, there are a total of approximately 1,600 kids and 103 teams in various divisions. Those divisions range from the four development classification to the 18 and under grouping, with mixed and girls splits in most age groups.
Because Sudburnia is recreational first and foremost, there are no playoffs, although there will be a year-end tournament for the age 12 and 14 divisions August 20-21, as well as for the 18 and under division August 13-14. To mark this year’s special anniversary, there will be an anniversary banquet held at the Caruso Club on Sept. 9, 2005. The gala evening will include a buffet dinner and dance, with tickets available for $25.
Additionally, the club will be hosting is first recreational youth soccer tournament June 24-26, 2005. The deadline to register is June 10, 2005 and the cost is $250 per team. However, the tournament is open only to the 10 mixed, 12 and under mixed, 14 and under mixed, 12 and under girls and 14 and under girls divisions. Finally, the club will also be sponsoring the annual Caruso Club soccer tournament in August, which is welcome news to the head coach of the club, Raymond Chevrette.
“The Caruso Club tournament has been going on for quite a few years and it’s one of the better tournaments, probably the best one in the north,” he says. “We get all of the good teams from down south to come up, so we’re looking forward to that.” Chevrette, who’s also the head of the anniversary committee, started coaching in the club fourteen years ago when his daughter Stephanie, now 20, started playing soccer.
He’s very honoured to be taking part in celebrating the club’s anniversary and still believes the club offers local youth a good place to have fun. “It’s recreational, so the emphasis is on having fun, not winning, and that is part of our constitution,” he says. “The biggest thing they get out of it is learning to play in a team environment, especially with the younger kids, because a lot of them have played with other kids on a one-on-one type of thing, but not in a group. So, I think this really helps them develop social skills and leadership skills, as well as athletic skills.”
Although the head coach says there are no real changes for the club this year, he still hopes the club continues to grow. He’s also looking forward to continuing on giving out two club volunteer bursaries. The Tammie Thibault Volunteer Bursary, named after the club president, and the Gail Arbic Volunteer Bursary, honouring the club’s treasurer and president of the Sudbury Regional Soccer Association, were first handed out last year. The bursaries are for $500 each and will be awarded every year to two post-secondary students who have been with the club for at least eight years, either on a volunteer basis or as players.
Sudburnia is comprised of approximately 225 volunteers, including coaches and people on the executive board, but Chevrette feels Thibault and Arbic should be especially recognized for their exceptional work. “Those two women put an incredible amount of time in and I think recreational soccer in Sudbury can be thankful that they have these two people volunteering their time, along with all of the other volunteers too,” he says.
