Photo: GoFundMe

A group of nine and 10 year old boys are learning a hard life lesson in anger, sadness and perseverance after their dream of attending a soccer tournament was taken away by a light-fingered coach.

The Edmonton Selects Football Club was supposed to fly out this morning for a prestigious tournament in Las Vegas but learned Monday flights, hotels and tournament registrations had not been paid for, nearly $40,000 was missing and so was the coach.

Kelowna native Adam Scorgie, whose nine-year-old son Beckham plays on the team, contacted Castanet News to help get the story out.

“My son has been fundraising for two-and-a-half years for this,” Scorgie says.

“He thought it was a prank until he saw my wife crying.”

But, Scorgie says what started as anger, sadness and frustration turned into something more.

“Our first thoughts were sadness, anger, how do we get him back,” said Scorgie.

“Then, because of the kids and wanting to send the right message for them, we said we are going to get this back.

“I knew we could, I just didn’t know we could do it in 25 hours.”

A GoFundMe campaign looking to raise $50,000 has surpassed that goal.

Scorgie says Evander Kane of the Edmonton Oilers kicked in $4,000 while the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings have also donated.

“We decided to show them (the kids) we can do this.

“If you want to go on this path of being a competitive athlete you're going to have obstacles.

“It’s unfortunate these life lessons we would have liked to teach them in their late teens or early 20s are coming when they are nine and 10.”

Scorgie says the coach, whom the team has not named, used bogus invoices to obtain e-transfers to allegedly pay for the trip. He apparently told the team as late as last Sunday everything was set.

No one has seen him since.

Scorgie says the GoFundMe campaign will remain up for a few weeks. Monies raised will go toward two tournaments, one in Minnesota later this year and the Vegas tournament next year.

Anything left over will go toward helping those youngsters who would otherwise not have the opportunity to play organized soccer.