Souris Lamplighters
  Our town is the hub for the various farming and fishing communities of Eastern Kings County. The club territory is loosely based within the Souris Regional High School District. The sport of soccer is not a new sport to Prince Edward Island. There was a club in the Port Hill area of Prince County in the late 19th. century. Concerns were also aired in a Charlottetown newspaper in that era about the youth of the city doing damage and breaking windows while playing football on Charlottetown streets. The schools had the sport in the fall sport structure since the early 1960's. The current Provincial club structure has been in place since the mid 1970's, although a Senior Men's League has been in place, since the late 1960's. Soccer in Souris had a trial on an organized club level in the mid 1960's that was extremely brief, under the leadership of Charles Gillis, due to the popularity of Canadian football. In 1973, a group of teenagers, formed a team to challenge the Village of Morell for the right to represent the County in the Prince Edward Island Centennial Summer Games. Considering that 95% of the team never played the game before, they did very well against a far more experienced side only losing 0-1 and 3-5. Morell had a strong high school program and several of the players were members of the famed Village Diner side that played in the P.E.I. Senior Legue. Two members of the Souris side, Waldron Leard and Shane MacClure, continued much later in the game and have the distinction of being co-founders of the present day Lamplighters Club. Both men have memories of the team hitchhiking the 26 miles to Morell for that first match. After the extremely high costs of Canadian Football forced the game out of the school sytem in the late 1970's, soccer soon became the number one fall sport for boys at the Souris Regional High School. The girls program had an earlier start in the fall of 1973. Souris schools have grown within the sport to the point where they are consistant contenders on the High and Junior High levels. Our club has a close working association with the Souris Regional High School Spartans Through the Varsity Boy's program, came the birth of club soccer in Souris. Three graduates of Souris High, met one evening in the MacIntyre Shoe Store and commenced to build a team of former players to challenge the Varsity team to an exhibition match. Coach Shane MacClure of the Spartans had a talented side and felt that a friendly exhibition match could hone the team's skills. MacClure had played the game on a Varsity level at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Waldron Leard had been introduced to the game through a bout of home sickness while employed in Halifax in the late 1970's. Through several of his teammates, he gained a deep appreciation for the history and passion of the game. Philip MacIntyre was a multi-talented athlete who had excelled in soccer and ice hockey. MacIntyre's athleticism and leadership was in the genes for he had several uncles and now cousins who were prominent in the the sports they participated in. The three men were able to build this innocent match into what is today a highly awaited part of the Town Sport schedule, called the Mud Bowl which is the Town Soccer Championship. The initial match had ended in controversy with the Spartans scoring a disputed goal to win 2-1. A rubber match had to be played to settle the issue and the Old Stars eked out a 1-0 win eight days later. The led to a championship final The Mud Bowl Championship
at the end of the season, after the Spartans had lost in the playoffs. The Alumni team which by now was called the Souris Elite Old Stars found the exercise invigorating and the comradary to their liking and accepted an idea put forth by soccer organizer Wally Morrison of Charlottetown. On Thanksgiving Day, the Smuggler's Jug Mooseheads played the Stars at the High School Pitch and while it was 4-0 for the Charlottetown, the Stars agreed to return to Charlottetown for a match later in the month. The return match was much closer with a 1-2 loss. The 1973 matches with perennial rivals Morell, were revisted also that fall with a 3-6 loss. In 1987, the lack of a minor program for the children of the area was remedied by members of the Elite Old Stars. They established summer sessions for the Eastern Kings Municipality, based at Munn's Road, as well as the Souris, Rollo Bay and Bay Fortune areas, based at Rollo Bay Consolidated School. The team registered as a club that summer within the Prince Edward Island Soccer Association and as a result were able to host their first Soccer School. That fall the men swung into action again with a schedule involving the Charlottetown Internationals, Kensington Whitecaps, Southern Kings Construction and the High School in Mud Bowl competition. Souris was being encouraged by several individuals with the Island soccer community including President Tom Wallis, U.P.E.I. coach Andy Cameron and long serving player and referee, Wally Morrison. |
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