By Geneviève April
www.thesuburban.com
With sparkling smiles and well-deserved pride, the girls of Monteuil Sparta soccer team were the stars of the day, Nov. 19, when Bank of Montreal (BMO) officials officially delivered the giant cheques that accompanied their crowning as BMO’s 2013 team-of-the-week champions.
“We successfully mobilized the community to win this prestigious national contest,” said Sabatino Andreoni, Monteuil Sparta head coach in an interview with The Suburban. “Opposing soccer teams, political representatives and the public from all over Quebec voted for us. We are grateful to all of them for helping us achieve this. Even though the girls can be really competitive on the field, we are all participants in the same sport and there would be no matches without these adversaries.”
Aside from their obvious pride at having earned the 2013 championship title, Monteuil Sparta received a $125,000 grant to renovate their soccer field, an amount that the city of Laval will match.
As part of the prize, the team also received $5,000 to donate to the charity of their choice, in this case the Quebec Breakfast Club. Finally, Monteuil Sparta team won a trip to Toronto to attend a Toronto FC match.
Several high-profile personalities attended the event, including Montreal Impact’s Patrice Bernier and Wandrille Lefèbvre as well as Breakfast Club representative Martin Goyette. Laval executive committee members David De Cotis and Raynald Adams, Laval regional soccer association president Bernard David, Laval police director Pierre Brochet and chief inspector André Pyton were also on hand together with many regional soccer officials.
“We also received hitherto-unseen support from Vimont MNA Jean Rousselle, who was a constant presence with us,” added Andreoni. “He actively participated in our events and helped us to raise the votes we needed to win.”
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