This season Whitehorse’s Ole Heath became the first Yukoner to play in the B.C. Soccer Premier League. Now he’s the first to be on a champion team in the league.
Heath and the Mountain United Football Club captured the U15 male trophy at B.C. Soccer’s Provincial Premier Cup Championships in Coquitlam on June 24.
“It’s pretty cool for my first season coming to B.C. and joining a new team, having a fresh start, being able to go to a championship and now the nationals. It’s just so amazing to go this far,” said Heath. “I know the standard of play and how competitive everyone is is very high, and to win the championship shows me that I am competitive, I can go all the way. That’s what it shows me.”
Heath is a backup goalkeeper in his first season for Mountain United, which is a feeder team for the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Mountain United, which is based out of North Vancouver and Burnaby, took the title with a 1-0 win over Fraser Valley Premier in the final.
Mountain United advanced through the quarterfinal beating Surrey United in a shootout after ending regulation scoreless.
They then topped the Vancouver Island Wave 5-1 in the semifinal.
Mountain United’s title comes after placing fourth in the league’s regular season.
“We went from being fourth all the way to the top,” said Heath. “I don’t know how it happened…. We were 100 per cent, always motivated — we sometimes lacked dedication in the league games, but didn’t lack in the Cup games.”
The Mountain United club also won U14 female title over the weekend and made the final in U16 male, U18 male, U13 female and U17 female divisions.
Heath, 14, began his soccer career playing with the Yukon Strikers rep team before moving on to the Yukon Strikers Selects elite team. With the Selects he competed at the 2015 USA Cup in Minnesota and the Soccer Canada National Club Championships in October.
Mountain United will play at the national U15 boys championships in October.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
CORRECTION: This story has been edited. Heath was the back-up goalkeeper and did not play in the championship. Heath did play in numerous matches during the regular season.