Youth and experience. Organization and commitment. Speed and skill.

This mix may bode well for this year's Yukon Selects Soccer Club.

Granted, the club is in its early stages, having held its second training session at Porter Creek Secondary School Monday night.

But already the team is looking sharper than it has in the past, manager and player Peter Mather says.

"This year, the skill level is much higher than it's been in a while. We've got some younger players, and the coaching is at a very high level too,” he said.

This year's Selects, with head coach Victor Lavanderos at the helm, have an extra dimension with a block of young players up from the under-18 program.

Adding older, ex-university and Canada Games players to the mix elevates the tempo of training and inter-squad games.

The club will expect the high level of commitment necessary to compete at top-level tournaments, Mather said.

"In other years, there's been the talent, but maybe not the commitment,” he said, adding that as training progresses the level of the older and younger players should even out. "Right now, the young guys are beating up on the older guys … I think that's been the biggest surprise for me.”

Lavanderos was also surprised with the training tempo.

"The speed, it was fast, and the touch on the ball was good,” Lavanderos said.

"Tactics, that's what we need to work on, vision, game situation, that's what we're looking for. The talent is here, but not the game understanding. That's what I want to focus on until the summer.”

The club has big plans for the upcoming season, both indoor and outdoor.

The first test will come during the 25th annual B.C. Indoor Soccer League Invitational tournament in Prince George this March, an event which draws some 12 teams, mostly from B.C.'s interior.

The last time the Yukon Selects competed in that tourney the club lost 1-0 in the finals.

The Yukon's expectation for this year's sojourn south is nothing short of gold, Mather said.

"The challenge is that when we go down we're not used to playing at that intensity, and it takes three or four games to get into it – and we do get into it, we've been to the finals a couple of times now,” he said.

"But with these training sessions, where once a week we play at a higher intensity and skill level than we'll probably see in Prince George, I think we'll be more prepared,” he added.

Being well prepared for big events is a trait the Selects have had difficulty with in the past.

The club passed on attending the 2010 Canadian Challenge Trophy (men's senior club nationals) in Prince Edward Island in October, and competed in the 2009 nationals in Saskatoon, Sask., with what Mather called "mixed results.”

In 2009, the team saw sporadic commitment and availability, particularly from players at college and university teams.

"We had a lot of pride in the program and we had a bad taste in our mouth about the last time we went (to nationals), and how poorly it went, and we just want to bring some pride back to the program,” Mather said.

Since forming in 1998, primarily as a development program for players shipping off to post-secondary teams, the Selects have attended nationals just four times.

The program was initially started by Jake Hanson, who now acts as technical director for the Yukon Soccer Association, as a way to bring his old team from Ambassador University in Big Sandy, Texas, to the Yukon for a tournament.

The idea then grew into developing the local elite players looking for opportunities to go beyond men's league.

"After about 16, the players in town were not continuing to develop, and there needed to be that opportunity,” Hanson said.

"The last couple of years the team has been building up for a run over the next couple years where we will put together some of the top players who have played in the program, coupled with competitive older players to try to have success at nationals and other tournaments.”

The most successful showing at nationals was in 2005 in Calgary, when, after a winter of committed training, the club tied Nova Scotia and beat New Brunswick

Now, some of those players who started out with the program a decade ago have returned after playing at the college/university level.

"We no longer see ourselves as a developmental program, we see ourselves more as a competitive program on the provincial, top-caliber level,” Mather said.

And a solid domestic league can only help.

The Senior Metro League kicked off last Friday, when Yukon Brewery F.C. beat the Roadhouse Bar and Grill 5-3 and ORC beat the Soccer Shoppe by the same score line.

"It's the best it's been in three or four years,” Mather said of the league. "It was fast.

"Every team has six or seven good technical players and then a couple physical players.”

As the 16 Selects players improve, the league will improve, he added.

The Selects are hoping to play in the Alaska State Championships in August, plus exhibition games in Juneau, and will meet over Christmas to gauge the interest in competing at the 2011 nationals in Quebec next fall.

But the undying problem for isolated areas such as the Yukon – lacking in game experience – will be a challenge to overcome.

Lavanderos added: "Vision and communication, these are going to be the big challenge.”