As the third season of FC Whitehorse in the Canada Soccer League comes to an end, the Freezers find themselves in unfamiliar ground. After two seasons of struggling, the team has elevated themselves to a firmly mid-table finish on the back of some strong veteran performances and an experienced manager in charge. The Freezers finished 15-7-16, which put them in 11th place in the league standings.
President Jaheem Byam was pleased with his club's performance this season, and stated in a recent interview that this was a nice stepping stone towards the future. "The goal with all of the Wellington clubs is to eventually reach championship glory" said Byam. "Obviously, our path is going to be a long process. But the first step into relevancy is consistency, and I feel like this was a season where we proved that we can be competitive with most of the clubs in the league. Now, we just need to make sure that we continue to make progress year over year."
During the season, Whitehorse finished with 69 goals (10th place in the league) and allowed 76 (12th). Their 527 shots (7th) and 269 shots on goal (9th) showed that there was a lot more potential for finishing scoring opportunities over the course of the season. Discipline remained strong, as the Freezers only conceded 24 yellow cards (3rd) and 2 red cards (T2nd).
In his post-match press conference after a 5-0 loss in the final match of the season against Black Gold FC, manager Raley Treffle spoke in his usual manner while summarizing his team's season as a whole. "This was a real double cheeseburger of a season" said Treffle to a bemused press corps. "We were the cheese smack dab in the middle with a lot of meat on either side of us. And obviously, we want to work our way to the top. But this league is incredibly difficult. Those top teams are going to be tough to break into. Our goal is just to keep growing and building every season and see if we can't start to push some of them soon."
For the first time in team history, FC Whitehorse had a player in the top 25 of league scoring. With 18 goals, Timothy Brett led his team and finished in T14th in the league. Among the other top scorers on the team, Angel Piña had 14, Josemisco had 8, Johan Nix had 6, and Dylon Lemaitre added 5 in only 22 matches. Newcomer Zako Schmit managed 5 clean sheets with Zavala getting 1. The club's bookings were dominated by 2 players with Leonard Nunez getting 10 yellow cards and Piña having 8 and both of the club's red cards.
Captain Johan Nix spoke after the team's final match and praised the resolve of the players this year. "We were really competitive with almost every team" said Nix. "We went out every week and felt like we could battle with them. We had wins over some top clubs this year, and we really rounded into form by the end of the season. I don't know what will happen going forward, but I have a lot of positive memories from this year. I hope that we can keep moving towards our goals."
Rumours are circling that the Freezers are ready to make some big moves in the offseason, so time will tell what this squad will look like when the new season kicks off in a few months' time.