It's that time of the year again.
The time of year when sticks and skates are stuffed into basements and closets, to be replaced by shorts, cleats and soccer balls.
For the Conception Bay North Lightning Soccer Club, that time is just around the corner.
"Everyone is looking forward to the spring-summer season," said CBN Lightning president Robert Tarrant in a press release.
Registration for the new season will be taking place Thursday, April 19 between the hours of 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. at All Hollows Elementary in North River. Also, registration will be held, starting at 7:30 p.m. and ending at 8:30 p.m., at Holy Redeemer Elementary in Spaniard's Bay.
The first 225 athletes to register with the club in the under-6, under-8, under-10 and under-12 divisions will receive a free soccer ball.
The cost of registration is $40 per player and there is funding available through the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Program for families in need of financial assistance.
The Lightning is entering its sixth year of operation.
"The Lightning have very quickly moved up the ladder on the provincial scene," said Tarrant of the club's success.
The Lightning have captured two provincial titles in the first five years of existence. With these wins, coaches have begun to take notice as two players from the club were selected to play for provincial teams and an additional six were chosen for all-star teams from the Avalon Peninsula.
"The club would like to build on this success and provide a high quality program for all players at every age group," said Tarrant.
To help with this success, the group has decided to bring in a director of soccer operations.
"The Lightning adopted a five year plan titled "Everybody Can Play" in 2010 and an important plank in this plan was the creation of a player and coach development program," said Tarrant.
The director will be responsible for conceiving and implementing a program that, over the long term, would further improve player development in the club of about 350 players.
Chosen to lead this development, as the director, was Gary Forsyth.
Forsyth hails from Glasgow, Scotland and brings with him a wealth of soccer experience.
He is the current head coach of the CBS Strikers Football Club challenge cup team and has previously coached in Nova Scotia with the Halifax Wanderers Soccer Club U16 and U18 programs. He has coached the East End United Boys Soccer Club U17 and U19 programs and the Soccer Nova Scotia U15/16 soccer team. Forsyth also brings international coaching experience to the pitch with stints in Scotland and South Africa.
"I am very excited to become part of the CBN Lightning program," said Forsyth. "I really enjoy interacting with all ages and levels of ability, and I feel that this is a good fit for me."
Coming along with Forsyth will be his partner Chris Hayes. Hayes has years of experience teaching the beautiful game and is the goaltender for the CBS Strikers FC.
"He will help me run the programs, as well as trying to develop a goalkeeper program with CBN Lightning," said Forsyth.
"The only clubs in the province that have similar positions are St. John's, Mount Pearl and Corner Brook," said Tarrant. "We are so fortunate to have acquired Gary and Chris."
The season starts on Saturday (April 21) with the first player development camp of the year.
nmercer@cbncompass.ca
