Aldergrove Secondary's Gurmaan Jhaj won the Golden Boot for his performance at the B.C. Provincial AA Soccer Championships.
Sixteen top high school teams from B.C. competed Nov. 18 to 20 at Burnaby Lake Sports Complex in the championship. Aldergrove Community Secondary School and MEI from Abbotsford were amongst them. In the end Saint Thomas Aquinas from North Vancouver beat Okanagan Mission Kelowna in penalty kicks to win the championship.
Aldergrove entered this tournament as Fraser Valley Champions without any losses in the regular season and were one of the few top contenders for the trophy, but a shootout loss to Saint Thomas Aquinas in a tie-breaker for a spot in the semis buried their hopes to win the Provincial Championship.
Aldergrove outscored opponents 16-3 in the five games they played and Gurmaan Jhaj scored nine goals for his team, making him the top goal scorer of this tournament and thus winning the Golden Boot award.
Currently a Grade 12 student at Aldergrove Community Secondary School he has helped his school team reach the Fraser Valley Finals these past two years and he was a major force behind his team winning this year's Fraser Valley Championship, along with Joel Waterman, who plays for Surrey United HPL team.
Playing in the High Performance League (HPL) for Magnuson Ford Mariners Abbotsford, Gurmaan has been a key player for this team. Gurmaan has also helped Abbotsford United Soccer Club (AUSC) win numerous tournaments with his highly skilled performances where he plays in off season during summer time.
Along with playing Soccer at the highest level and in the community, Gurmaan also does coaching sessions with 8-12 year old kids on voluntary basis for the Indo Pacific Soccer Academy (IPSA) program in Abbotsford, run by Ian Knight, where he shares his skills with these kids.
As a 12 year old kid Gurmaan himself was in the Whitecaps Academy program and he wants kids to play sports and enjoy a healthy life style and keep themselves active so they can stay away from bad influences, especially drugs and gangs.