By Dan Plouffe
Young players from the Nepean Hotspurs Soccer Club took centrestage for the kickoff to the FIFA Women’s World Cup trophy tour, which launched its cross-Canada voyage at Ottawa City Hall.
The full under-14 Ontario Player Development League girls’ team lineup as well as three other Nepean club members were asked to smile for the cameras at the April 1 event – an easy task that required no fake grins at all.
“It was overwhelming. The girls were just smiling ear to ear. Not too many words were coming out of them – which is a rare occurrence,” laughs Hotspurs coach Adam Knight. “For a young female athlete, you can’t think of anything better for them in terms of inspiration and motivation.”
Team Canada coach John Herdman pumped up the crowd – and the Nepean girls – with a tingling speech to set the stage for the tour and the June 6-July 5 World Cup.
“They’re all sitting in there with that dream that one they might actually get to play for coach Herdman or touch that trophy on their own,” Knight adds. “It was just fantastic.”
Julien to play at World Cup?
Ottawa Fury youth academy grad Christina Julien of Cornwall was back in Canadian colours for the women’s national team’s final tournament before the big show from March 4-11 in Cyprus.
Julien saw limited field action, playing the final five minutes of Canada’s opening 2-0 win over Scotland and the last 12 minutes of Canada’s third pool game – a 1-0 victory over Italy that booked a place in the Cyprus Cup final won by England 1-0.
After playing a starring role alongside Christine Sinclair in Canada’s last Olympic qualifying run, the 26-year-old striker was made an alternate for the London 2012 Games and has seen minimal action since those early days under Herdman’s direction.
Canada’s World Cup roster will be unveiled April 27 in Vancouver.
REX program shuttered
While the spotlight shone on the top level of the sport, women’s soccer in Ontario took another blow the next level down.
On the heels of the four Ontario-based W-League (North American Tier 2) clubs folding before the 2015 campaign – including the 2013-champion Ottawa Fury – the Ontario Soccer Association cancelled its main program designed to move players into the Canadian women’s national team program.
The OSA issued a very brief statement in mid-March announcing that Regional Exceleration (REX) Training Centre operations were being suspended for 2015.
“Players can train and compete in age appropriate environments such as the OPDL, League1, OYSL and OWSL,” the post said. “They will continue to be scouted and their progress monitored.”
Louis-Riel high school senior Adrienne Li, a past youth national team program member, was in Toronto on March 8 – like every other weekend – when she got the news at the end of her session that REX would shut down due to finances.
“It was really weird,” recounts the University of Central Florida-bound player who trains under Sanjeev Parmar, but had no other present team outside of REX group. “I don’t know (what’s next). I’m going to have to find something else to do.”
Ottawa South United head coach Paul Harris received the news from his players – four of whom involved with REX program.
“It’s frustrating for our players,” he indicates. “I hoped it was going to be the future and would move the game forward. Let’s hope that they find a solution soon so that it doesn’t set these girls back too much.”
Although the travel commitments to Toronto on most weekends was always daunting for the out-of-towners, Harris notes, and strong development programs and coaching are available locally, the quality of players assembled can’t be substituted.
“The environment was the best challenging the best when they were there,” he explains. “You’ve got 20 girls who are hungry and want to play at the national level. Within the groups here, you haven’t got that depth of talent.”
Seattle W-League scours Ottawa
OSU’s 1998-born girls offered up the opposition for a group of largely local players auditioning for the Seattle Sounders W-League team at a combine OSU helped to organize at the RA Centre Dome.
Seattle may seem like an unlikely franchise to be scouting in these woods, but the club’s leadership has two strong connections to the capital – former Ottawa Wizards (Canadian Soccer League) coach Hubert Busby Jr. (the Sounders’ head coach/general manager) and Seattle director of scouting/technical consultant Dom Oliveri, the former long-time coach of the Fury W-League team.
“It was a good weekend,” signals Oliveri, who chose the Sounders job over several other opportunities because it allows him to stay with his family in Ottawa the bulk of the time. “I think Ottawa players showed a good account of the talent that’s here in the city. I’m sure we’ll look at a couple to move on to main camp in Seattle in May and hopefully someone from Ottawa will make the Sounders.”
Several past Fury players have already signed on to play for the Sounders, while Carleton Ravens midfielder Veronica Mazzella, a Fury player the last two summers, was one of 20 from as far as Boston looking to pursue a path to Seattle.
“It was really unfortunate (that Ottawa folded). We had no idea this was going to happen,” recounts Mazzella, who got a call from Oliveri the moment the combine was confirmed. “He’s really good like that. He has your back.”
Fury FC games free for 14 & under
Ottawa Fury FC unveiled its Fury Fanatics program in March that will allow all of the region’s registered soccer players age 14 and under to attend the pro team’s games at TD Place for free.
A half-dozen local clubs had committed to taking part in the program prior to the official launch at the North American Soccer League franchise’s fan fest, and the number has now ballooned to over 20.
“It’s snowballing. It’s been a great success,” says Fury president John Pugh. “Now it’s a challenge to get our lanyards out to the kids.”
Each participating club will distribute lanyards to its young players with passes that will allow them to obtain free tickets to a given match online (where they can also buy another ticket or two for their parents or coaches, the Fury note). In all, over 20,000 of the region’s players are expected to receive access to games throughout the team’s 16-game home schedule.
“We had a good year last year, but there are still a lot of people who have never been out to Lansdowne to watch us,” notes Pugh, whose club made a major splash by signing Canadian national team captain Julian De Guzman just before the season. “We need to connect with the local soccer community in every way that we possibly can. What better way to do that for young players who play the game than to go watch some pros play live and be inspired by them.”
EORU prez takes over WOSC
The West Ottawa Soccer Club has a new general manager, with Steve MacNeil taking over from Bjorn Osieck, who recently began working in the newly-created director of business operations position at the OSA.
With a background in the sports medicine business as well as sports management, MacNeil was most recently the president of the Eastern Ontario Rugby Union.
“After three years of an unprecedented growth and expansion, WOSC is at a critical point in our development, and we believe Steve’s appointment will help us build on our successes, and support our growth to the next level,” WOSC president Brian Mason said in a club news release.