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Island soccer girls to hold players’ hands at today’s World Cup final

Twenty-two young soccer players will walk onto a field of dreams today, accompanying the American and Japanese players as they march onto the pitch for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup championship game in Vancouver.
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Back row, from left: Karen Hood-Deshon, Lower Island Soccer Association executive director, and selected Island girls Kennedy Aleck, Xanthe Evans, Molly Andulajevic, Amanda Moreira, Alegria Massa, Audrey Compton, Claire Grbavec, Tillie Curtis, Jordyn Smyth. Front row: Darya Rabbani, Kerstina Adams, Sophie Mallory, Rowan Picard, Alice Pilling, Freya Lumley, Naomi Hogg, Sophie Hayes, Kaylynn Rowlings. Also selected but not in photo: Cate Pontefract, Elise Fontes, Megan Lizotte and Cat O’Shaughnessy.

Twenty-two young soccer players will walk onto a field of dreams today, accompanying the American and Japanese players as they march onto the pitch for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup championship game in Vancouver.

The girls, who range in age from six to 10, play for the 10 Lower Island Soccer Association’s youth soccer clubs.

“It’s going to be exciting … I love soccer and I love scoring goals,” said Lakehill’s Alegria Massa, 9, of the honour. The girls will hold the players’ hands as they walk onto the field at B.C. Place Stadium.

“I want my daughter to know the love of the game and that will get her through all those rainy practice nights,” said dad Nat Massa, who has played soccer all his life.

Kaylynn Rowlings, representing Cowichan today, already has first-hand experience with players of this level — her family is friends with veteran Canadian defender Emily Zurrer of Crofton.

“Emily has been a role model,” said Kaylynn’s dad, Neil Rowlings.

Eleven-year-old Kaylynn said she is “sad Canada is not in the final.”

But, she quickly added: “This is very, very exciting.”

The girls were selected at random from the 10 Lower Island soccer clubs — Lakehill, Bays United, Juan de Fuca, Gorge, Peninsula, Prospect Lake, Saanich Fusion, Sooke, Cowichan and Salt Spring.

The Lower Island Soccer Association was chosen for the honour because of its support for the World Cup from the earliest organizational stages.

Sophie Mallory, 9, of Gorge FC, said she has watched all of the games and is “super-excited” about her duties this afternoon.

“I’m a tiny bit nervous … but not that much.”

Ashlyn Pakos, the granddaughter of 1986 Canadian men’s World Cup player George Pakos of Victoria, was part of the group that escorted the Canadian players onto the pitch for last weekend’s Canada-England quarter-final. Ashlyn got to hold the hand of captain Christine Sinclair.

There were 3,126 girls among the 7,719 players registered in the Lower Island Soccer Association this season.

Youth soccer associations across Canada are expecting a spike in registrations due to the exposure given the women’s game during the World Cup.

The final kicks off at 4 p.m. today.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com