The league’s annual all-star games run all day at the home of the Gorge Soccer Association and this year there’s an added twist to the festivities. Two of the VISL all-star teams will face all-star teams from the Fraser Valley Soccer League.
The men’s open all-star game at 2 p.m. will feature players from the VISL’s Division 1 and the FVSL’s top division. Coaches Richard Fast of Bays United and Steph Steiner of Saanich Fusion will lead a VISL team that will feature the likes of Cooper Barry and Patrick Nelson of Saanich Fusion and Steven Scott, Tyler Hughes and Brad Thorne of Cowichan FC.
Preceding the open all-star game will be the VISL’s over-35 all-stars taking on the FSVL’s over-35 all-stars at noon.
Kicking off the day at 10 a.m. will be an all-VISL matchup between the Div. 4 all-stars and the Under-21 all-stars, while the VISL’s Div. 2 and Div. 3 all-stars will face each other at 4 p.m.
Midget Royals earn all-star nods
Two South Island Royals players have started the new year in style.
Nick Guiney and Haydn Hopkins have been named to the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League all-star game, which will be played Jan. 17 at the George Preston Centre in Langley.
Guiney, a 5-foot-10, 172-pound forward, went into the winter break with 18 goals and 14 assists in 24 games, while Hopkins, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound forward, tallied 12 times and added 20 assists in 23 games. Hopkins is also a bantam draft pick of the Saskatoon Blades for which he recently suited up for four Western Hockey League games, collecting one assist.
Guiney, Hopkins and the rest of the Royals open the second half of the BCMMHL season this weekend when they play host to the Thompson Blazers on Saturday (noon) and Sunday (9:45 a.m.) at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Islands race series set to begin
It may still be a little cool and wet out but that doesn’t stop avid runners on the Island as the Frontrunners Island Race Series begins this weekend with the Harriers Pioneer 8K.
Defending Pioneer 8K champions Geoff Martinson and Natasha Wodak are back to defend their title in what is also the first race of the Timex B.C. Road Running Series.
The Pioneer 8K, the first of eight events in the 2014 Island Race Series, begins and finishes at the Saanich Fairgrounds on Stelly’s X-Road.
Registration can be done on race day for $35 ($30 for students).
Yee helps UBC top NCAA squads
Victoria native Jason Yee helped the University of B.C. hockey team get the new year started on the right foot.
Yee scored the winning goal in overtime as the Thunderbirds edged NCAA powerhouse University of North Dakota 3-2 in an exhibition game. Yee, a defenceman, and his teammates then capped the exhibition weekend with a 1-0 blanking of Ivy League team Princeton.
