Newcomer growth kickstarts soccer team for small Edmundston school

For the first time in 15 years, Saint Mary's Academy in Edmundston has a soccer team. 

And not only is it the first team in well over a decade, but it is also made up of kids from a wide age range, all skill levels and a variety of nationalities.

Kevin Topolniski, one of the coaches, said the 20 kids are from Grades 6 to 12 and from 12 different countries — Benin, Cameroon, Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Japan, Madagascar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and Sudan. 

"We have two boys that are probably about 4½ feet tall, and they're shorter than everybody else on the field," Topolniski said. 

Most of the players are boys.

"But everybody plays. And we said that from the start — if you're on the team, you're playing in the game."

He said the school, which is K-12, tried once a number of years ago to start a team, but it didn't work out. However, in the last 18 months, the school has almost doubled in size with the city's growing population of newcomers.

Teacher Bethany Toner knew the parents of these new students were asking if the school had a soccer team, so she took action to make the team a reality, said Topolniski.

He said the special part about the team is that all of the players want to be there, and there are "no prisoners."

"Everybody shows up and they show up on time, and they're smiling, and they're giving it their all," he said.

They all love the game, he said, although many of them have never played organized soccer or had access to soccer gear in the past.

Topolniski said a lot of the kids have had to learn what it is like to play on a bigger team with more than just two or three others.

"It's the most fun I've really had coaching in quite a while," he said. "Not to take away from any of