Lee — For Casey Jones, organized sports seemed like a way for her daughter Lilly Hassmer to make friends in their new neighborhood after moving from Wilmington, N.C., to Lee. She enrolled Hassmer in Wildcat Sports Group’s girls soccer program upon relocating.
“She loves soccer,” Jones said. “This is such a bright spot in her life right now.”
Jones acknowledged that a transition like the one her family recently made “can be hard” for any child, let alone a sixth grader.
“It’s a consistent group of great girls,” Jones said of attendance at the twice weekly practices and at least one weekend game. She applauded the coaching offered by Wildcat Sports Group founder Simon Borrett, with this year serving as the inaugural soccer season for girls 10 years old and younger, as well as those 12 years and younger.
A nonprofit organization, Wildcat Sports Group opened in Lee this past spring, offering a softball program.
Angela Sirois-Pitel, who coaches the dozen girls on Wildcat’s 10-and-under girls’ team together with her husband Nick Pitel, said the group is a mix of experience levels, with some new to soccer and others being introduced to team sports in general for the first time.
Holding practices locally in Lee has been a big time and effort savings for the girls and their parents as many of the teammates were previously enrolled in a league in either Lenox or Great Barrington, she said.
“Because there’s a lot of focus this year to try to start up a program, there’s a lot more active recruitment among parents and kids to get a team for Lee, so I think we were able to bring in kids from more of the Hilltown areas that wouldn’t be able to travel up to Lenox because it’s right here in Lee and we try to do it pretty close to after school, making it easy for parents and kids to get here,” Sirois-Pitel said of the program. “We were really happy with the turnout, the number of third and fourth graders we have.”
Pitel agrees with Sirois-Pitel that the Lee program opens the door for children in Sandisfield and Becket, areas located too far away from the existing South County teams. “Lee is a good location for them to come and play,” he said. “And it gives them the opportunity to play soccer where Lee hasn’t really had a program for a number of years.”
This season marks the couple’s fifth season and third year coaching soccer, with one daughter on the 10-and-under team and another daughter on the 12-and-under team.
Both teams’ schedules align with each other, with the two groups starting the season at the Berkshire Classic tournament in Pittsfield in August, said Borrett who coaches the 12-and-under team that boasts 13 girls, with one training player.
“As a brand-new organization, it was a good opportunity for us to go out and see where we stood,” he said, although the team lost in their final match at the Pittsfield event. “It was great for the girls to learn and to really put themselves in a place where they were setting themselves up for a good season which it has been so far.”
Their final games are in Sheffield and Gateway, finishing up the season on November 4 in Williamstown.
“In terms of the organization, we definitely had a great introduction for Wildcat Sports Group into soccer,” Borrett said.
Girls soccer teams in the Berkshires are maintained in Adams, Gateway, Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, North Adams, Pittsfield, Sheffield, and Williamstown. The spring youth soccer season opens in March or April, running until mid-June.
For Borrett, the future of the group lies in other youth demographics, with opportunities for children ranging from pre-kindergarten/kindergarten to 14 years old and under, generally in seventh and eighth grades. “So, the opportunity is always going to be there but, based on numbers, it depends if we can offer teams at that level or not,” he said.
One of the biggest goals for Wildcat Sports Group is programming for boys, Borrett said, adding that there is no longer a varsity soccer team at the high school level. “This year, we were about one or two players short from getting [an under-10] boys team,” Borrett said. “It was a tough call to make to not be able to put them on the field.”
However, he counted seven additional boys who will age into that group next year. “Fingers crossed, come the fall [2025], we’re definitely going to look to have a U-10 boys’ program,” Borrett said, with that opportunity possibly being moved up to the spring if enrollment so provides.
“Giving kids the chance to play sports in their own backyards is the ultimate goal,” Borrett said.
For more information, visit the group’s website or email Borrett at wildcatsportsgroup@gmail.com.