Steven DeLong just won a provincial soccer championships several weeks back with the Holy Cross Kirby Group club team and now he is looking to add to his list of accomplishments with a strong finish at the National Challenge Cup Senior Men's tournament early next month when the team leaves Newfoundland and Labrador for Winnipeg.
"We took this week off," he said via phone call with the newspaper, referring to the bit of rest they give themselves following another successful league run with Holy Cross.
During league play this year, they won almost all of their 19 games and he had 21 goals, he said.
"We'll start training three or four times a week," he added.
He will be bringing some experience with him to Winnipeg. He has played in this tournament before as a member of Yorkton's team and hopes that experience will come in handy even though he knows that there will be some nerves when the team first steps out onto the pitch for their first game, likely on Oct. 3.
"It's a really high calibre of play," he told the media.
Holy Cross actually has only two losses heading into the tournament, coming against St. Lawrence and Laurentians.
This is DeLong's first time playing in this tournament with his Newfoundland and Labrador team, however the club has made this tournament three previous times including last year when they fell in a shootout in the bronze medal match.
DeLong and Newfoundland and Labrador can be tracked online for those interested in following the progress of the National Challenge Cup, he said.
Log onto the Canada Soccer website and click on national tournaments.
PROVINCIALS
Holy Cross made the nationals following a 2-nil victory in the finals of the league tournament. DeLong said it was a close game in the final but a second goal at the 70th minute sealed the win for Newfoundland and Labrador, he said.
It was the team's fourth year winning and DeLong's first senior championship for himself.
"It was the biggest game I've won in five years. It was tense but we knew that we were the better team. It was (also) craziness."
