The Airdrie and District Soccer Association (ADSA) recently held its inaugural Blizzard Buster indoor soccer tournament at Genesis Place.
The 15-team tournament took place from Jan. 13 to 15, and was the first of its kind to happen in Airdrie.
Four local teams, the boys’ U14 and U16 and the girls’ U14 and U16 squads, competed at the event.
ADSA president Annette Cameron said the tourney was a big success.
“It was a lot of fun for everybody,” she said.
“We received a lot of really positive comments from all of the out of town teams.”
The original plan for the tournament was for it to be a consecutive 24-hour event running from Jan. 13 into 14.
But due to the scheduling of high school diploma exams, the format was changed to accommodate the students.
“Eventually, we’re hoping to turn it into the around the clock tournament that we had planned. That will be determined on the number of teams we can have come in,” Cameron said.
“We are planning to make this an annual tournament, so our hope is next year that we can have more divisions.”
The Airdrie FC’s U14 boys’ team fared well at the Blizzard Buster even though it entered in the U16 level.
The squad took home the silver medal with a 5-2 win over the Blizzard Atletico team.
Chase Griffin, Andy Grab, Prinex Roberts, Steven Westerbeek and Deven Miller scored the goals in the win.
The team also won its opening game 7-3 over the WRC Knights on Jan. 14.
They lost to the eventual tournament-winning Millwoods Selects from Edmonton 6-1 the same day, and fell 5-2 to Airdrie’s U16 Aztecs on Jan. 15.
Cameron said she is confident the Blizzard Buster will be back next year.
“It was hugely successful, but we’re always hoping it will grow,” she said.
“We look forward to hosting it again.”
