AMSl and Sundogs Partner up

Yellowknife’s Aurora Minor Soccer League says it’s planning to expand partnerships with other groups to grow soccer in the NWT.

AMSL is an indoor soccer league that runs throughout the winter with age groups of under-five to under-18.

In recent years the league had operated independently for the most part. Its new board of directors says AMSL will now take a different approach, such as partnering with the Yellowknife Bay soccer club - known as Sundogs - to develop coaches and players.

“We’re going to ensure that kids who enrol with either AMSL or Sundogs basically have more field time. That’s the whole point of it,” said AMSL president Chris Rayner.

Rayner has been coaching in the league since 2013. He had experience playing soccer at high school and, after he enjoyed the first year of coaching, decided to stick around.

AMSL and Sundogs had occasionally scheduled games together in previous years, but not on a consistent basis.

According to Rayner, AMSL’s main problem - enough games but not enough practices - coincided with Sundog’s wide range of practice times but lack of games, meaning the club often had to take expensive trips southbound to play.

The two organizations hope working together can develop more players, offer more playing opportunities in NWT and better develop the sport.

While AMSL is normally considered a recreational league, Rayner stressed that both the coaching and skill level is not to be overlooked.

Sundogs is one of two competitive teams in Yellowknife, the other being YK Galaxy.

“To have a really good, competitive program that can go south and compete with Alberta and BC and those teams, it has to have a grounding of a really solid and well-run recreational program as well,” Sundogs coach Joe Acorn told Cabin Radio.

“The recreational program is the base, and then the competitive program comes out of that.”

Acorn is the founder of the Sundogs and has been coaching the team since 2009. He has experience playing at college level and won national recognition for his work in 2024.

The partnership between the two organizations will operate throughout the summer and winter seasons. 

Sean Fleming, a former Canadian national team coach, will offer in-person and online seminar training for players and coaches of both organizations.

“In the past 15-20 years it was rare for a kid to come out of Yellowknife and be able to go south and play on a college or university team,” said Acorn.

“We’re seeing that much more often now, because players are getting better development here in Yellowknife, and there’s no reason why we can’t continue to aspire even higher.

“Getting professional players is like having lightning strike, but there’s no reason we can’t do that here, and that should be our aspiration.”