All in all, NAIT Ooks head coach Charles O'Toole came away with a positive feeling about the 2016 men's soccer season, although a defeat one game short of a medal certainly created some disappointment.

"Going into the provincials (at Medicine Hat) we had a good feeling about ourselves," he said. "We had clear signs that we were coming together as a team, so the final defeat (2-1 to the SAIT Trojans) kind of caught us by surprise."

Clearly, the Ooks were hurt by the absence of gifted playmaker Sadi Jalali for about 70 minutes, but O'Toole made no excuse. "It was a retaliation. The other team got a yellow card and when Sadi retaliated, he got a red and was ejected.

"It was especially harmful to lose Sadi. He scored five goals in the last couple of (regular-season) games."

Although playing 10 men to 11 for so long, NAIT kept creating chances in the playoff. Finally, time and SAIT's stubborn defenders decided the issue.

NAIT lost consecutive games to the Keyano Huskies in the early weeks and found itself in a season-long battle for respectability and the playoff berth. "The situation with Keyano gave us an early indication of how hard we had to work, and we did," O'Toole summarized. "There were a lot of improvements" but, in the end, not quite enough.

The coach projected that as many as 11 members of the 2016 team might return in the fall, "but that depends, always, on a lot of issues."

As the Ooks collected their 8-and-2 win-loss record, numerous individuals turned in top performances. Jalali led the ACAC in assists and Sebastian Cabrera was close behind. More than 15 players were in their first or second seasons of eligibility and only midfielder Julian Gonzalez was in his fourth year.

Through the season, O'Toole recognized the personal highlights and also saw the continuing need for more on-field cooperation. Individual totals, as he often has told at least one reporter, do not win important soccer matches.