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Red Deer College soccer and cross-country teams start seasons on the road

The wait is almost over for Red Deer College cross-country running and soccer teams, as both seasons begin this weekend on the road.
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The wait is almost over for Red Deer College cross-country running and soccer teams, as both seasons begin this weekend on the road.

The Red Deer Queens soccer team will open the season on Saturday when it visits Lethbridge College. Then on Sunday, the Queens head to Medicine Hat College to battle the Rattlers.

The Queens went undefeated in both non-conference games in August, beating the University of Alberta Vikings 2-1 and tying the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves 2-2.

Esad Elkaz, Queens head coach, said she expects the team to finish high in the rankings.

“I know the capability of all of the returning players. They are very skilled technically and tactically,” said Elkaz. “The new players are very eager to prove that they belong at the college level. They bring a lot of speed to the game.”

The Kings soccer team will play Lethbridge on Saturday and Medicine Hat on Sunday as well. The team went 1-1 in the pre-season, defeating the University of Alberta 4-1 and falling to the King’s University Eagles 1-0.

Wade Groenewegen, Kings head coach, said the veteran and new players are meshing together well.

“This group is very much a team, on the same page, very coachable, work hard and are a treat to work with honestly. We have overall team speed, fitness, a good level of generosity to use each other on the pitch and a willingness to dig into the tactics and get intellectually better,” said Groenewegen.

Red Deer College’s cross-country running team will start its season at Concordia University on Saturday.

Kari Elliott, cross-country head coach, said they are looking to build off a strong base by building off of last season.

“Now we can switch gears and move from base building to speed training. The balance lies in pushing the student-athletes to achieve beyond what they think they can and reining them in to prevent injuries,” Elliott said.

More information is available at www.rdcathletics.ca.