Young Yukon soccer players, as well as coaches and referees, will benefit from a new sponsorship partnership between Northwestel and the Yukon Soccer Association (YSA).

Under the three-year deal, which was signed this morning, Northwestel will provide $12,000 a year to the YSA to support grassroots soccer development in Yukon communities. The funds will be used primarily to provide training camps for athletes and clinics for officials and coaches.

'This is part of Northwestel's community investment program,' said Anne Kennedy, Northwestel director of public affairs, at the news conference this morning. 'Northwestel is very much into sponsoring and supporting programs that help youth.

'We felt soccer was an excellent fit and would provide a lot of opportunities to keep youth fit, active and having fun.'

The YSA typically delivers four to six clinics per year in Whitehorse and Yukon communities. There is also a one-week summer camp in Whitehorse organized by the Whitehorse Minor Soccer Association (WMSA) and this new deal with Northwestel will enable the associations to provide more clinics and camps, with a focus on the smaller communities.

'We are delighted with this agreement,' said YSA president Dave Stockdale. 'This is a substantial amount of money for us. It will give us the ability to have coaches and to go into the communities.

'As well as the smaller communities, Whitehorse, one of the larger communities, will be benefiting greatly from this sponsorship,' said WMSA president Gerald Haase, who was also very pleased with the deal. 'Whitehorse minor has in excess of 1,200 players and I'm sure a lot of kids will benefit from this.

'We will be able to expand the summer camp program for soccer players. This also helps with the Head Coach program.'

The Head Coach program is a Canadian Soccer Association initiative which has been newly adopted in the territory. It's coordinated by national coach Sean Fleming and the idea is to start developing the skills of younger kids earlier, and to help volunteer coaches feel more comfortable teaching those skills.

The hope was to recruit three head coaches one each for the under-6, under-7 and under-8 divisions and pay them to take the program training for a 6 week period. Those coaches would then train and support all of the volunteer coaches.

The YSA and WMSA had been waiting for proper funding before moving ahead and now the associations have budgeted $3,000 from the new agreement towards the program, or $1,000 per division.

'We will be doing that (Head Coach program) for the outdoor season,' said Haase. 'As of May 1st, there will be coaches.'

Northwestel has also sponsored the Yukon indoor soccer championships for more than a dozen years. Stockdale said the $12,000 cheque the YSA received today is additional funding. But starting next year, the money for the championships will come out of the $12,000.