Surrey Guildford Builds for the Season

Surrey Guildford United U-14 Metro teams standing on the boardwalk they built at Ponder Park

In preparation for the upcoming 2010/2011 season Surrey Guildford United U-14's opted to forgo an extra tournament and instead, take some time away from the soccer scene in order to do some team building. The squad was spending the weekend at Ponder Park, a nature reserve in North Langley primarily used by scouting groups. As part of their team bonding, the coaching staff wanted to emphasize the importance of good citizenship that is part of being in an elite program that represents not only the club and city but also our province in many cases.

The first and definitely most laborious task was tearing up and replacing a dilapidated old boardwalk that provides access to the trails around Ponder Park. While a number of boys worked on this project with some (a lot) of parent and coach supervision and help, a number of others worked clearing the trails and spreading gravel around the camp. The work was dirty, very muddy and all the equipment had to carted up and down 'the hill' that everyone loved to hate. For most of the boys it was the first time they had built a structure of any size or significance.

The final result was a very well built structure that will last many, many, years for future scouting groups and the public to use. **The park is open to the public (as long as there are no groups at the park for the weekend), so families are encouraged to go see the work the boys did**

The Boardwalk

Note: In the picture below you can see a repaired part of the old boardwalk, the segment SGU built has the railing. Before SGU arrived most of the old boardwalk was collapsed and was so overgrown you could not see the boards.

The remainder of the retreat was primarily focussed on fun and team discussions and activities. On Sunday afternoon the SGU squad engaged in the first ever SGU golf tournament at Poppy Estates Putting Course. The team had a great time, with the foursome of Nikhil Reddy, Jordan Graf, Liam Fraser and Darren Rulofs coming out as champions.

Surrey-Guildford in the camp mess hall

Surrey-Guildford will now shift gears back to soccer as both the 'A' and 'B' squads prepare for the Coquitlam-Metro Ford Labour Day Tournament, September 4th-6th.