The Kamloops Heat is in must-win mode as it plays three Pacific Coast Soccer League premier women’s division games over the next five days.
The Heat (4-4-3) has three games remaining in the regular season. It will play Okanagan FC tonight, 7 o’clock, at Hillside Stadium, before a pair of weekend games on McArthur Island — against Surrey United on Saturday, 2 p.m., and West Vancouver FC on Sunday at noon.
Because only four teams in the 12-team division will make the playoffs, the Heat has to win all three games to have any chance of catching up to Coquitlam (6-2-6) or the Vancouver Thunderbirds (7-3-2), who are tied for third with 23 points, eight ahead of Kamloops.
Surrey (6-4-2) appears to be the toughest challenge of the weekend for Kamloops, as West Van (3-6-2) and Okanagan (3-7-2) are out of the playoff hunt.
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Kala Stone of the Kamloops Track and Field Club has been named to pair of provincial teams for national championships later this summer.
Stone, 17, was named to the B.C. athletics team that will compete at the Canadian Junior Track and Field Championships in Winnipeg from July 27-29.
Once she’s finished there, she’ll be off to the Legion Canadian Youth Track and Field Championships, which run from Aug. 17-19 in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
Stone, a long-distance runner who is coached by the KTFC’s Bruno Mazzotta, will compete in the 1,500 metres in both competitions. She is the only Kamloops athlete to have qualified for the youth championships, but three locals qualified for junior nationals.
Spencer Allen, a pole vaulter who trains under Ryan Jensen, will take part in the Winnipeg competition, as will Adam Keenan, a Victoria hammer thrower who moved to Kamloops to train at the National Throws Centre with coach Anatoliy Bondarchuk.
A total of 25 athletes were named to the youth team, while 30 made their way onto the junior squad.
