Canadian Converts: A tale from the west coast

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This is the second in a series of posts dedicated to sharing stories from fans of Canadian soccer about how they came to follow their country and/or local club, and what it means to them. We're told soccer is wildly popular in Canada -- but too often, that means people who play but don't watch, or those who exclusively follow foreign clubs or national teams. While that's all well and good, it's not the same as being a Canadian soccer fan.

To find out how you can be a part of this series and add your voice to the Support Local Soccer movement, see the end of this post. But in this edition, we hear from a fan who had a strong response to the first edition of this series, and took me up on the offer to make his own unique story heard.

"I can't tell you when I first became interested or passionate about soccer; for me, it has always been a part of my life, and an integral part of my family's heritage."

Normally, hearing a Canadian describe the game in this way evokes images or stories from "the old country," wherever in the world that may be. But for Devon, a 28-year-old from Victoria, B.C., it's a bit different.

"When I say my family's heritage, I don't mean, 'descended from x ethnic group and therefore I like soccer' -- I mean a family history of being involved in Canadian soccer that goes back four generations."

[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

fff

One of my most cherished and cool possessions is my Great Grandfather's

gold (I'm going to assume plated) pocket watch. On the back the

inscription reads “*Powell River Dist Football Assn* Moose FC -Winners-

McMaster League Falconers Shield Bell-Irving Cup 1929-30” and then the

initials and last name of my great grandfather. For a soccer nut like

myself, I don't think there's a better heirloom to have.

I know my grandfather played soccer, but to what capacity I don't know. My

dad was a high school star in the mid 60's, he played for team BC during a

national tournament and was even offered a pro contract by then Div2

Sheffield Wednesday. Seeing as early 70's div 2 teams paid poorly, my dad

decided to go to university instead of accepting Sheffield's offer; a

really good decision, but sometimes I still can't believe dad turned down

a chance to play pro soccer.

As for me, I grew up playing soccer. I spent most of my weekends at the

park playing with kids while our dad's played league games. When I was 13

my family moved to Chile for a job opportunity. You may have heard of

Chile? They play a bit of soccer down there.

If I played soccer before going to Chile, I became immersed in it down

there. All of my new friends at school were U. Catolica fans. I'm not

Catholic, but when you're 13, why would you cheer for any team other than

the ones your new friends cheer for? So I became a big Catolica fan, and

went to their games whenever they played teams in the southern Chile

(where I lived), or whenever we would go to Santiago. I was also in Chile

for the World Cup 98 qualification campaign and tournament, and got to

experience first hand a country going crazy as their team participated in

the World Cup. While in Chile soccer was life. During school hours we

played soccer every break and every PE class. My summer holidays in Chile

consisted of 8 hours of soccer a day, as all the neighbourhood kids would

gather at the dust field (it was used too much to ever have grass) and

would play all morning, break for lunch, and then play all afternoon

again. It was an awesome time, and I returned to Canada a much better

player than when I left.

I returned to Canada in '99, and began following/supporting the CMNT with

the same gusto that I had seen my Chilean friends do with their national

team. In 2000 there was a little tournament called the Gold Cup, and for

the final I gathered as may of my high school friends as possible to watch

the game and me go ballistic when we won. None of them really understood

why the win was such a big deal, but I tried to make them understand.

Since 2000 without specifically trying to I've gone to every CMNT

in/around BC including the 2004 game against Guatemala at Swanguard and

the 2008 friendly against Brazil in Seattle, which was

maybe the best game of soccer I have ever seen.

Of course I am a big Whitecaps fan, I've been so for the past 6 or so

years... alot of webcast watching in that time.

Having talked about my soccer history, I should probably mention soccer

present. I think the CMNT having all of its games in Toronto sucks. I

could use alot more verbose and offensive expressions to replace 'sucks'

but lets leave it as is.

It's great that your friend Miriam has recenly been exposed to the

national team and how “"Caring about every single game the national teams

play has become very much a part of [her] life." I've been that way for

the past 10 years, buying CMNT merch, travelling to what games I could,

getting up at 4am to watch shitty web-streams of friendly's being played

god-knows where. So if Miriam and I are equally big fans, why should only

one of us get to go to games? You might not know the feeling since you get

to go to CMNT games every couple of months, but being a massive of fan of

the CMNT, it's really sad/rage educing to never, ever, get to see CMNT

games live.

Canada is a massive country, and the CMNT belongs to all of us. The games

should be, and have to be moved around the country in order for the game

to grow. One region should not have a monopoly on a national entity. Being

Canadians we're already accused of having socialized everything, so why

not a socialized national soccer program as well; where we all share and

get along, rather than dragging out regional divisions every qualifying

cycle? Yes this would involve more travel for players, sometimes, but it

would also allow people from outside southern Onterrible to become

passionate CMNT fans, just as your friend Miriam did.

I was going to leave things here, but I just want to add one more thing,

because I know the response to any idea of playing CMNT games outside of

Toronto brings with it the issue of real vs turf fields... Get over the

turf field issue, it's not a real issue. If turf is the major issue

preventing the team from playing elsewhere, then the 2008 qualifier should

have never been played on the (questionable) turf at BMO field. And until

the CSA, the players, and whoever else comes out and retroactively says

that playing the 2008 qual in Toronto on the turf was a massive mistake,

then it can't be said about anywhere else.

How's that for passion / semi-coherent ramblings? I was going to put in

reasons for why games shouldn’t be in Toronto and my compromise idea for a

National Stadium in Ottawa, but none of that is exactly relevant to me and

my passion for the CMNT, so I'm leaving it as is.

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