Central Alberta girls soccer team to compete in Europe this summer

Ponoka Storm U15 Girls soccer team. (Source: Facebook)

Portugal awaits a group of soccer-playing girls from central Alberta who have “never let their small-town beginnings hold them back,” the legislature heard Monday.

Calling the Ponoka Storm “an extraordinary group of young women,” Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Jennifer Johnson said the girls will be ambassadors for Canada, Alberta and the rural way of life when they travel to Estoril for a June 30-July 6 tournament.

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The U15 team is made up of teens from places within and beyond Johnson’s riding, including Ponoka, Lacombe, Stettler, Red Deer, Rocky Mountain House and Camrose.

“They embrace their rural roots, compete with heart, and lift each other and their communities up along the way,” said the UCP’s Johnson.

IberCup bills itself as among the world’s largest youth soccer tournaments. Six other competitions are planned for 2025 — two more in Portugal, two in Brazil, one in Spain and one in South Africa.

Behind the trip are two years of planning, fundraising and “relentless effort” by coaches, parents and the athletes themselves, said Johnson.

The girls trained through Alberta winters and competed against larger city teams with deep rosters. They used “hard work and determination” to rise to Tier 2 from Tier 4, and most recently earned silver in U15 Tier 2 provincials. Some of the girls have played together since they were five.

Role models and volunteers as well as athletes, Ponoka Storm members are “not only competitors but outstanding ambassadors of Alberta’s values, resilience and community spirit,” said Johnson.

By George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Macleod Gazette