The soccer season has come and gone and now, it’s time to crown a champion. NAIT’s soccer teams both saw success this year, but only one will advance to the postseason.
The men’s club will represent the blue and gold as the first seed in the North Division at the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Championships.
The women’s team finished third in the division, but it wasn’t enough for a postseason berth. As hosts of the championships, Northwestern Polytechnic was granted an automatic playoff spot—despite finishing second last in the division—pushing the Ooks out of a playoff spot.
“Rome wasn’t built overnight,” says women’s Head Coach
The result of missing the playoffs by two points certainly wasn’t how the team envisioned their season ending. Nonetheless, in a year where the program’s roster featured only two long-standing players, the team plans to use this campaign as a learning experience to build on for future seasons.
“I think it was a season of learning and a little bit of disappointment at the end. However, when you look back at it, we did finish in third place. We did finish with the same record as we did last year in the same position, and unfortunately, this year, it didn’t qualify us for a playoff spot,” Head Coach Dhee Govender said. “But, I think overall we are happy with the progress that we made with, you know, 13 rookies on the team and a fairly young team … I think that we have a very promising group, and we’re on the outside looking in this year. However, on any other given year, we would be right in that mix.”
The women’s team finished 7-3-2 and started the season on fire. They won four of their first six games, including a 16-0 win over the Portage Voyageurs. They were also nationally ranked twice, peaking at seventh in early September.
However, the team struggled in the second half of the campaign. The Ooks came short of a playoff spot after losing twice and tying with Northwestern Polytechnic on the season’s final weekend.
That doesn’t mean the team didn’t make significant strides this year. The Ooks were strong on defence, allowing only seven goals in 12 games—the third-fewest in the conference—and only losing one match by more than a goal.
Despite the disappointing finish to the year, Govender is confident the Ooks are building in the right direction to regain the dominance they experienced in the 2010s.
“Rome wasn’t built overnight, and for us, we’re not going to be a national championship contender overnight,” Govender said. “We did a lot of positive things [this season] … and I think our players are open to that learning curve.”
“We’re extremely confident. I think with what we’ve accomplished in the short period of time … I’m super thrilled about the opportunity that we have in the upcoming year, and I’m hoping that the players can see that as well too.”
Men’s Head Coach says “the expectation is to win at NAIT”
The Ooks men’s soccer club is headed to its 18th consecutive postseason appearance.
The 2024-2025 regular season could not have turned out any better for the number two nationally ranked Ooks. The team posted a record of 9-1-2 to clinch the first seed in the division and enter the playoffs riding a five-game win streak.
NAIT also dominated the conference on offence and defence. The club scored an ACAC-best., with 36 goals for and only nine against, making them tied with Keyano College for fewest allowed goals in the conference.
The Ooks automatically advance to the semi-finals, where they will face the winner of Northwestern Polytechnic and SAIT’s quarterfinals.
Head Coach Jeff Paulus expects the men’s team to continue its dominance. “We’re a very tough team to play against … I think our team has found ways to win. And even when we’re not at our best [the players] have found a way to either prevent the opposition from creating chances or just staying in the game,” he explained. “There’s absolutely zero quit in these players.”
The 11-time ACAC champions’ goal of winning a championship every season has never changed. But after a four-year drought and back-to-back seasons walking away with silver, the motivation to get the job done is stronger than ever.
“I still feel we should have won it last year. I still feel that it was unfortunate the way the game unfolded, but I still felt that we were the better side … the expectation is to win it at NAIT. That’s always been our expectation with this program,” Paulus explained. “We feel we’ve got a great chance to win it [this year] … we’re definitely gonna take all the experiences that we learned from and bring that into this weekend at provincials.”
