Saint Mary’s Academy, a K-12 school in Edmundston, made headlines a few months ago after newcomer growth in the region kickstarted the northern New Brunswick school’s first soccer team in 15 years, with kids from a variety of ages and nationalities.
And things haven’t slowed down since the end of a busy soccer season. It’s one of 10 schools out of 840 applicants to win a Team Canada Olympic-Day grant. And it started a futsal program.
Kevin Topolniski, who coaches the soccer team, said grant allowed the school to expand its programs offerings and create a program similar to soccer that would engage students during the winter and be available to a wider age range of students.
Futsal started in February and ran for eight weeks, with the students practising every Saturday morning.
“The enthusiasm was overwhelming,” Topolniski said. “Parents were talking about how their kids were waking them up early on Saturday morning [saying], ‘We gotta go, we gotta go.'”
Futsal is a variant of soccer usually played on an indoor court. According to Futsal Canada, the sport’s name is derived from the Portugese, futebol de salão, which translates to “hall football” and the Spanish, fútbol de salón, which translates to “indoor football.”
After a successful revival of the Saint Mary’s Academy soccer team in Edmundston, the school received a grant that allowed them to start a futsal team, a sport similar to soccer that is usually played indoors, and they brought in a special guest.
Futsal Canada says the sport’s origins can be traced back to Uruguay in 1930, when an Argentine physical education teacher, who was living there, noticed kids playing football, known as soccer in Canada, on basketball courts because of the shortage of football pitches.
The futsal ball is a low-bounce ball that is smaller and feels heavier than an outdoor soccer ball.
Topolniski said the grant was able to help the school buy futsal balls, pinnies, shin pads, socks and shoes for kids who needed them.
Earlier this week, futsal players and Saint Mary’s Academy students Mali St-Onge and Heaven Rasalina said they were feeling a mixture of sadness, nervousness and excitement.
Sadness, said St-Onge, because the futsal season recently came to an end, but happiness and nervousness, said Rasalina, because as part of the school’s grant, an Olympic soccer player was visiting the school to play a few matches with the students.
Two-time Olympian and bronze medal winner Marie-Ève Nault was in the building on Wednesday to meet the students and share her story.
In an interview, Nault said she thinks the grant was given to the school because of its soccer development.
“They see that the kids want to play soccer and they make it happen,” she said.
Topolniski said he thinks having Nault at the school will inspire even more students to want to play soccer or futsal.
And he’s already heard students chatting in the hallways about wanting to tryout for the soccer team.
“The whole school is excited,” he said. “The kids are just like a shaken up pop bottle and you take the cap off.”
