Outdoor Season is almost upon us... (Updated)

As the snow begins to melt and the grass (and turf) underneath begins to become visible and obvious, outdoor seasons are and tournaments are starting to warm up the turf in the Kingston area.

This past weekend, one of the last indoor tournaments took place, the Queen's High School indoor invitational, out at the Kingston 1000 Islands Sportsplex in Westbrook.

On the boys side, St. Pius X from Ottawa repeated as the boys champions with a 2-0 victory over Cornwall's St. Joseph's. Eight teams started pool play with St. Pius X and St. Joseph's finishing first in their respective divisions and a bye to the semi finals. St. Joseph's beat Belleville's Bayside 1-0 in the semis to advance to the final. St. Pius beat Pickering's Pine Ridge 2-0 in the semi finals on their way to the championship.

The girls side saw another repeat champion, also from Ottawa, as St. Francis Xavier HS won in a thrilling 1-0 overtime victory over Alliston's Banting Memorial. Thirteen teams started pool play with St. Francis Xavier, Banting Memorial and Whitby's Donald A Wilson capturing their respective divisions. Banting Memorial reached the final with a 1-0 quarter final victory over Smiths Falls, and a 1-0 semi final victory over Donald Wilson. St. Francis Xavier beat Bayside 3-1 in the quarter finals, and Pine Ridge 4-0 in the semi finals on their way to capturing the title.

This coming weekend features the annual Queen's Invitational Boys U17/U18 tournament. It will be played on Tindall Field on main campus on Saturday and Sunday. The Clippers U17 OYSL team will be participating in this tournament along with teams from Darlington, West Rouge, and Kingston United.

That leads into the annual KCVI Invitational High School tournaments next week on Tuesday, April 15th for the girls and Wednesday, April 16th for the boys. These games will be at Tindall and Nixon Fields on main campus and will likely also feature some games out at the West Campus Turf Field, if last year's event is anything to go by.

These tournaments serve as warmups to the Kingston High School season, which will start on Tuesday, April 22nd and will be played on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays on Tindall Field, the West Campus Turf Field, and the Invista Field with kickoffs beginning at 12:30pm each day.

Of course, the biggest news coming out this week is that the Cataraqui Clippers will be playing in League1 Ontario (L1O) for the 2014 season, with their games out at St. Lawrence College.

What has flown a bit more under the radar is the news that the OSA's Ontario Player Development League (OPDL) will be holding five game dates here in Kingston, all located at Queen's University. The Eastern Division features Ottawa South, Whitby, North Toronto, Nepean Hotspurs, Markham, Pickering, West Ottawa, Toronto FC (Boys only), and Ottawa Fury (Girls only). The OPDL is a new top level U13 league which has the goal of building towards the League1 Ontario system. The game dates in Kingston will be May 3, May 10, Jun 14, Aug 16, and Aug 23. The games will kick off at 10am, and be played every two hours with the fourth game kicking off at 4pm.

As the outdoor season approaches, the indoor seasons wrap up...

The GKSSA men's season is coming to a close in two weeks, and as things stand, the St. Lawrence College team is tied with FC Vita Azzurri at the top of the Open Division standings with 35 points each, four points up on The Keg, and six up on Cataraqui I. Scott Robb of Cataraqui I leads the goalscorers with 20, two ahead of Colin Dawdy from West End Dental. All Open teams have two games remaining in their schedules. Dustin Kemp of The Keg leads the clean sheet standings with six, while Ryan Bertrand of Eastron Iron Duke has five, and Pietro Cutrona of FC Vita Azzurri has four.

In the Master's division, Sousa Ready Mix has three games left and, with 37 points on their undefeated season to date, leads Roma by eight points. Roma also has three games left in their schedule, and Sousa Ready Mix will clinch the title with one more point due to their head-to-head results. Torin MacPherson of Roma and Mark Stanley of Sousa Ready Mix lead the goal scorers with 18 each. Marty Braga of Sousa Ready Mix has kept four clean sheets, and Kevin Borges of Skeleton Park Rangers has tallied three to date.

Over in the KWSC, Cataraqui leads the Co-Ed division with 34 points from twelve games, and Alehouse trails them with 24 points, with Brass Pub Black Knights sitting on 22. All three teams have four games remaining with Alehouse having to play both teams, including a Cataraqui/Alehouse matchup on the final matchday, May 4. Alexis McKinty of Cataraqui leads the goalscorers with 14, and teammates Brittney Snell and Jessie de Boer trail with 11 and 10 respectively.

Tier A is led by United, who are on 32 points from twelve games, 9 points up on L&M Building with a big matchup coming tonight at 8pm. Each team has three further games after tonight's match. Kaitlyn Balfour and Sarah Sanford of United lead the goalscorers with 16 each, two ahead of Michelle Walsh, also of United.

Tier B is lead by PT United, tallying 29 points in twelve games, with Halliday trailing them on 23 points. The two teams face off next Thursday at 9pm, one of their four games remaining. Lisa Farrelly of PT United leads teammate Andrea van Ogtrop with 11 goals to 10 in the race for the golden boot.

Tier C is a tight battle between Turf Queens on 25 points, Rigney on 22, and Luscious on 20, each with twelve played and four remaining. Each team has a game against each other with Rigney and Turf Queens having to face off twice in the last games. Kaitlyn Esford from Rigney leads the division with 15 goals, while Mandy Fletcher and Sharon Blackwell of Turf Queens follow with 10 each.

In the Ladies Masters, the McCullough Hotspurs lead the division with 28 points from thirteen games, ahead of Red with 23 and Dragons with 20. The teams have three games left each, with each playing the others once. Hayley Marshall of McCullough Hotspurs and teammate Kathleen Burtch lead the golden boot race with 10 goals apiece.