"OYSL is the highest level of soccer around, no team in Welland has ever played in the OYSL," said coach Rob Lalama. "To a hockey fan, it's like junior A. You see all your provincial and national players in the OYSL, most often Toronto kids. It would have been quite the accomplishment, but it's a downer. We got so close we could smell it."

The Wizards will stay in the elite league and continue to move up to the OYSL. Lalama has been coaching soccer for 25 years, When Lalama formed the team in 2005, they started in Division 2.

The Wizards were ranked 126th in the province and, after years of climbing through Division 1 and the Premiere divisions, the Wizards were recently ranked 12th, said Lalama.

"This team here is one of the best I've ever coached," he said. "You try to get 16-year-old boys to commit with school sports, jobs and social activities, I have to applaud them for their commitment."

When the team entered the elite division, the Wizards were on the field four days a week with practices and a game.

The team's top scorers were striker John Fitzgerald (13), mid-fielder Dustin Maiolo (9), defender Daniel Bellinaso (8) and striker Tirus Mwangi (7). Keeper Jonathan De Luca had seven shutouts over the course of the season.

He was defended by Dan Bacon, Bellinaso, Zach Waldick, Bill Taylor and Jesse Derwinsky. The midfielders who worked to assist the strikers and help out the defenders were Drew Gowan, Mark Dano, Maiolo, Colin Dougan, Cody VanSoelen and striker Kyle Caron. Over the seasons, as the team moved up and changed divisions, so did the face of the Wizards.

"Usually the core players stay. You get a few kids that drop out over the years for different reasons," said Lalama. "I have to make selections and I may not pick the same kid every year, and that's tough. As the game gets better and more people come out, some of the returning kids have a hard time."

The change from Division 2 to 1 is the most difficult transition in soccer, said Lalama.

"You might not handle it," he said. "But you definitely can't make it to Premiere or Elite, because the game is just too fast or you're not skilled enough."

When the Wizards moved up from Premier to Elite, they had the element of surprise. The Elite teams had never seen Welland before. Lalama repeated over the course of the season that nobody expected anything from the Wizards and that they could play pressure-free. Next year won't be the same.

"No more surprising people, but we're going to just continue what we're doing," said Lalama. "The reason we had success was because we worked so hard. Our goal was to defend. If we could defend, we would have a chance in all the games."