The St. Timothy High School Thunder boys soccer team started their Calgary Senior High School Athletic Association (CSHSAA) season on April 30 when they took on the Lord Beaverbrook Lords. The Thunder are looking for a bounce back campaign, after going 1-7 in eight games last season, allowing 47 goals while only scoring seven while playing some tough competition. St. Timothy didn't get off to the best start losing 7-1 to the high powered Lords, a team that played a division higher last year but was dropped down to division three due to a 1-7 record. Thunder head coach Barry Tremblay said the game wasn't an ideal start to the season, but believes there are some positive take-a-ways. "What we can take from our first game was it was the first opportunity to really organize ourselves in a full team formation," Tremblay said. "We were able to discover the best positions amongst others and some of the players showed true leadership skills. We have to work on formation and opening the spaces to create opportunities and I think yesterday's game provided us with a lot chances to do that, we just need to fine tune the skills." Tremblay said he was also happy with the team's overall effort, but after a loss the team still has some work to do in order to become successful. "One thing about these boys that is very clear is it's difficult to dampen their spirits," Tremblay said. "They don't give up. They keep on trying whatever the score may be. I'm definitely looking forward to our future matches just after observing what we're capable of doing. ... I think we're heading in that direction and hopefully we can evolve into a more competitive team within our bracket." "Things to improve on would include our formation. Just sticking to formation and having better communication between one another and finding those opportunities for space and getting those chances to send it down either wing or through the center to create some more offensive chances." St. Timothy's boys soccer team is always comprised of athletic student, who have grown up playing other sports such as hockey, baseball or football. Tremblay said this year that athleticism is combining with a bit more experience. "The students that did tryout for soccer and are on the team, are ones that have played before in previous seasons as well as a great collection of students that just want to be part of the community and be part of the athletic community of the St. Timothy Thunder," Tremblay said. He also highlighted he has one important goal that he'd like for his team to achieve this season. "My expectations for this season is despite whatever the score may be later on, hopefully we'll get to shortening the point differential and become more competitive as we continue on here," Tremblay said. The Thunder will now host the John G. Diefenbaker Chiefs on May 3 and the Thunder head coach said they'll be a tough team to beat. "Diefenbaker is a well established school with a well established athletic program. I think we're going to be up against a very competitive school," Tremblay said. "We had a slower start to our game against (Lord) Beaverbrook so hopefully we can be faster on our start and become that much more competitive. We want to give Diefenbaker a greater challenge."
