Soccer is just booming

As much as I love writing about baseball, however, reality dictates that at least half – if not more than half – of our coverage needs to go to soccer.

So I’ve tried. And tried. And tried.

And now there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

Part of the reason I enjoy writing about baseball is that the Westmount/West End ball community might be relatively small, but it’s tight-knit and eager for exposure.

The people who run NDG Baseball, which has several great Westmount players and coaches in its ranks go out of the way to communicate with us and we give them their due exposure.

I’ve never had what I would call a lack of cooperation with local soccer, but we often find it tougher than it should be to get information from that association, especially in NDG.

Whereas baseball regularly contacts our sports department to tell us about anything and everything that might be going on, we’ve had trouble figuring out heads from tails with local soccer.

This is particularly true in NDG, but not so much in Westmount and Côte St. Luc.

Now comes the CSUQ and City of Côte St. Luc’s “new” soccer program… and seemingly some light at the end of the tunnel.

In recent talks with program coordinator Eric Choukroun, it would seem his organization is willing to do whatever it can to grow soccer in CSL, including helping to get a little coverage.

What’s important here isn’t our feelings… the reality is that we don’t need to be coddled or handed stories, much like a lot of columnists at daily newspapers would claim is their right.

Rather, in a small community, it’s important that everyone work together to help grow sport – any sport.

What’s interesting with Westmount Recreation and soccer in CSL is that these are relatively small organizations that do whatever they can to get some exposure and understand the need for promoting their programs.

Working with Westmount Rec has been a pleasure over the years, particularly with Mike Deegan, Bruce Stacey and the women who run the adult soccer program.

Organizations should strive to accomplish what Westmount Rec and CSL soccer are doing: getting maximum exposure to grow a sport that needs a little help in this part of the world. -- Noah Sidel