Kodiaks #14 Hayden Devoy goes for a shot on visiting Ambrose Lions goalie Drayton McLeay during a game on Oct. 15, 2021.

Despite having a majority of rookies on both the men’s and women’s Kodiaks soccer squads, they excelled this fall.

Unfortunately, both teams were eliminated early on in the playoffs loosing respective games against Red Deer Polytechnic.

The men lost 5-1 against the Kings and the women lost 2-1 in overtime against the Queens.

The Lethbridge College Kodiaks had a respectable showing this season despite not bringing home medals.

After a year off due to the pandemic, the Kodiaks returned to a shortened season with two relatively young teams.

Both the men’s and women’s teams had rookies for nearly three quarters of their players.

“You know what? They came together pretty quick. They gelled pretty quick,” said Kodiaks co-coach Brian Pries about the women’s team.

What prevented a better showing at the playoffs was mainly due to injuries.

“What happened at the end of the season is we just ran out of healthy bodies… and then in the playoff game we had our two starting centre backs go out so it was tough for the girls to overcome that,” said Pries.

Even with so many inexperienced players, the women were able to win five of their six regular season games.

“We have really no complaints on how the women’s season went for sure,” said Pries.

The men’s team also had a good showing, winning four out of six of its regular season games.

Kenzel Aarts-Roman, a three-year veteran of the men’s team, felt communication was the key to connecting with the new players.

“Everyone has a different style, right? So, every practice we’d sit down with a couple, or we would work with a group of them and get used to how they play and then we just kind of brought that to our games,” said Aarts-Roman.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought its own problems as not only the Kodiaks but all teams across the league were unable to train together over the last year due to restrictions.

“it was pretty difficult for the kids to kind of get back in the swing of things,” said Pries.

Despite the difficulties, Aarts-Roman had a couple highlights to the season.

“I scored my first regular season goal and then I was on the pitch for one of our vets that have just finally retired, he scored his very first goal after four years,” said Aarts-Roman.

Looking at next year, Pries feels things will only improve for both teams, with the new players having this season under their belts and the older players coming back to continue their leadership role.

“There were just some phases of play that were so nice to watch and so exciting going forward in the future and we could say the same about the guys,” said Pries.

It won’t all be easy for either team if they hope to improve on the gains they made this year.

“I think they’re going to learn that they have to come to camp in shape and ready because the season’s so intense that there’s no time to get in shape,” said Pries.

Aarts-Roman went to nationals with the team two years ago and so he is looking forward to having a better season next year.

“Yes, I’m hoping to return next year and hopefully bring back a little bit of medals for the team,” Said Aarts-Roman.

He is also looking forward to returning in a leadership role to help guide the younger players.

“Of the games that we won, there were some tighter games, but you know just the skill level that we have on this team going forward is going to be, It’ll be so good to work with,” said Pries.