Welcome to the Canadian Soccer Sentinel

Hi all and welcome back to The Sentinel. It’s been a while!! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.

Do you like the new Sentinel who is going to guard our future??? A guy I work with going by the name “Conn Artist” drew it while he was in dock, so to speak, after an operation. I also work with him so it was a great opportunity. Personally there has been a lot of things going on and it was a tough decision to cancel the last few issues but, ultimately, it made sense. This issue (as late as it is) is more of a catch up on things around the Canadian soccer world. We are covering everything from the World Cup, to the National Championships, to the local leagues in BC, along with everything else. There is a list of the Canadians who have won NCAA Championships along with the commitments to both NCAA, USports and CCAA. There are also details of the USports and CCAA regional and national Championship finals. Speaking of NCAA, our cover photo is of Grace Stordy who you may remember gave us an excellent interview a while back. I promised her the cover if Memphis got some silverware so, a deal is a deal!! This does not lessen the achievements of all our other Canadians who lifted silverware. Congratulations to all. On a personal note, I want to say that I am beyond excited about the news of a Women’s Professional League starting up in the country. It’s about time. It’s just a pity that it had to be ex-players who grasped the nettle and not Canada Soccer. While talking about our governing body, I also had the priveledge of going and watching some fine soccer being played in the National Championships held in Vaughan and Woodbridge (less than an hour away from our base). Ultimately, while the product on the pitch was excellent I was more than a little disappointed with the way the whole thing was run. Considering it was the pinnacle for most provincial teams, it was not great. No merchandise, no pa announcers even announcing the teams and goalscorers, no signs of who was playing where, no concessions for the spectators. Heck, they decided to come out with a kind of tournament programme mid way through the men’s final on the Monday. All round it was a very poor showing from Canada Soccer for what is a National Tournament!! On the positive side I got to meet some great people over the 3 days I was there. Congratulations must go to both Gloucester Celtic from Ontario on their Championship with a professional display and to Holy Cross Crusaders and their huge band of travelling support from Newfoundland for, not only becoming the first provincial side from Newfoundland and Labrador to reach the Jubillee Trophy final, but also to win it with an excellent performance. As I say, great on the pitch, awful off the pitch. And boy, was it ever cold on the Saturday!!! Anyway, that is it from me. My thanks to our contributors as always. I know AC is probably one of the happiest people out there with the Project 8 news. The February issue will be coming but, as some readers may know, I’m having a knee replacement on February 3, courtesy of a career ending knee injury I suffered back when I was 17. Not telling my age but it was late 80’s!! All the best