The Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School (PSO) boy’s soccer team walked away with a bronze medal from the North Central District Secondary School Athletic Association Zone Championship last month. Josh Hutchins was part of that team.
“It was fun,” said Hutchins. “We turned around one of the games from 2-0 to 4-2 against D.B. Todd.”
The school from Prince George were beating the PSO Eagles, before the Eagles knocked past four unanswered goals during one of the preliminary games of the tournament.
The Grade 12 student plays as a left-back and has been with the team for three years.
“He has been very consistent playing at the left fullback position. He’s very deceptive because opposing strikers feel like they have their way with him because of his size but he’s got surprising speed and he always makes the simple, intelligent, safe play,” said head coach Sean Glanville.
He said Glanville is probably his biggest influence in regards to soccer. It was Glanville who started playing him as a left-back, instead of Hutchins’ regular position as a midfielder.
Glanville also described Hutchins as one of the most cheerful players he has coached.
“He’s known for asking for hugs instead of handshakes at the end of the game. The majority of players oblige him but the odd teams aren’t in the mood, typically only if we handed them a loss.”
Hutchins was part of the PSO Eagles for three years now and said he would like to continue playing soccer in this spring.
“I might try out playing on a rep team this spring,” he said, adding he has before. “I just haven’t for a while just because I didn’t really want to.”
His departure from the school also opens the door to new players for the PSO Eagles.
“Josh and his best friend and central defender, Max Holzapfel, are the two Grade 12 starters we will lose to graduation, so we will have a couple of spots to fill on the defensive line next season.”
Most rep soccer players have to travel to Williams Lake in order to play higher-end representative soccer.
Hutchins said he has been playing soccer since he was around eight years old.
“My parents signed me up and I guess I just really liked it after that.”
Outside of soccer, Hutchins plans on attending the University of Northern British Columbia in order to become an accountant.
“I guess it’s just stable and lots of good jobs for it.”
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