By Drew Wilson

Three provincial titles on line for Celtics

Jul 21, 2011 | 9:40 AM

paNOW Staff

The Soccer seasons for three P.A. Celtic sides wraps up this weekend with the provincial championships in Regina.

The Under-16 girls and Under-14 boys clashed in a friendly to tune up for the Saskatchewan tournament with the girls winning 2-1.

The end of July is a challenging time to play the biggest tournament of the season because it's difficult if not impossible to keep your line-up together, said Michelle McKeaveney, U-16 girls coach.

“We lost some players due to an aboriginal European tour and some other players who had family vacations and now injuries. So we picked up some other girls and we are quite confident they will fit into the line-up nicely. I'm pretty excited and pretty proud of all of the girls for all of their efforts.”

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The U-16 girls have faced three of the other teams in other tournaments including the Greavers event in Saskatoon, which they won. They are also expecting a strong challenge from Swift Current who they will meet for the first time.

Remaining focussed for girls of this age is another big challenge.

“I run a kind of a tight ship,” said McKeaveney.

“Some of the girls who have conformed nicely and some of the girls have not. Under-16 it's a little bit different, they've got different things going on in their lives, so to get them focussed on soccer and get them focussed on what the agenda is … we've got one weekend … let's do it and then you've got the rest of your summer.”

It's also a chance for the graduating players to go out on a high note.

“So this is their last year to jell as a team, their last weekend, their last hurrah,” she said.

“So the mentorship between some of the older girls and the younger girls has been really beautiful to watch and therefore as we split into two different teams next year I'm quite confident the girls will take away some great experiences.”

The Under-16 girls play Friday evening at 6:15 vs SYSI #3 and meet SYSI #1 Saturday morning at 11:15. Their final round robin game is Saturday night at 6:30 against Swift Current.

The Under-14 boys open Friday at 4pm vs Swift Current with Saturday games against UCT and SYSI #2. The U-14 girls are matched against Unidad at 3pm Friday while meeting Melfort Saturday morning and SYSI #2 Saturday afternoon.

dwilson@rawlco.com