2021 ended in spectacular fashion for Pacific FC on a frigid evening in Hamilton, Ontario, but some of the ever-lasting memories from the season were created back home on the Island as the team were welcomed home by its supporters after a long, long wait.

For close to two years zero Pacific FC matches took place at Starlight stadium, and with it no ability for the club and its supporters to connect in person.

Some players, like Pacific FC midfielder Manny Aparicio who joined the club in 2021, had to wait for the chance to create a bond with their new fanbase. It’s no surprise that high performance athletes thrive on the give-and-take between fans and players.

“Being able to see what it was like here in 2019 (as a visiting player) and then coming out now. It was amazing,” says Aparicio.

“Being able to have fans cheering you on, or even trying to tear you down in away matches, is just motivating compared to having no one in the stands. I think you could see it against the Whitecaps that the supporters were the driving force those last few minutes. You could feel how much the fans wanted it and how much it meant to them, and as an athlete that drives you forward and makes you want it even more.”

Now-former Pacific FC defender Lukas MacNaughton has experienced many different soccer environments in his career already and was able to adjust to having empty stands, but even the ability to adjust easily doesn’t mean the difference isn’t noticeable.

“Playing at U of T, we’d have like 30 fans at a game so I’m used to paying without fans,” says MacNaughton, “but playing in front of fans does make a huge difference. It’s unbelievable the amount of energy they can give you and the joy of seeing them after games or during the game and in moments where you need help or a 12th man and they’re there. It’s great because it gives you so much energy and that excitement is back.”

When Pacific returned to Starlight last summer, the club’s supporters also made sure they didn’t take the ability to connect with the team again for granted.

“It’s glorious,” says Lakeside Buoys member Blake McStravick, “it’s amazing to see everyone again. It clearly means a lot to the players too, which is so cool to see. There’s a feeling of excitement, anticipation. It felt brand-new again, yet comfortable and familiar at the same time.”

“Some of my favourite memories from this season were having the players come over to the supporters section to applaud us. It’s very gratifying to see that it means something to them too.”

The Difficulties of No Home Matches

Michael Geldreich was elected as the president of the Lakeside Buoys, one of Pacific FC’s supporter groups, in December 2020; a time when everyone was unsure over what the 2021 Canadian Premier League season would look like.

“Being elected president of a supporters group in December when there was no soccer going on and maybe we’ll have a season, it was really hard. We’re just glad we had it back, it feels like a really long off-season.”

There were plenty of difficulties associated with having no in-person interaction with the team over the past two years. Geldreich says the hardest part was the inability to bring in new supporters in the same way they could when home matches are happening.

“The hardest part about all that time off was we couldn’t welcome anybody new. If you don’t already know, you’re not gonna be coming out. And we have to make sure that those that were invested in it before can somehow keep the energy up. So we wanted to make sure we took the opportunity to let the players know the supporters are still here and cheering because it was hard to grow the club in the community and find people who weren’t already fans.”

Favourite Home Match From 2021

Unsurprisingly, there was a pretty universal winner for “most memorable match of 2021”.

“The game we played against the Whitecaps was my favourite game I’ve played in, ever,” says MacNaughton, “it was just such an enjoyable game to play and the team was playing so well. I’m at the back and I’m watching these goals happen and I just have a smile on my face like ‘what’s going on’. When everyone’s playing so well it’s so enjoyable.”

“The Whitecaps match,” says Aparicio, “the whole environment that day. The way we approached the game, we knew we had the mentality of ‘let’s go do this, we know we can do this’.”

“Obviously being able to get the first goal was a huge thing for us because I think that’s when we really realized ‘holy, we can pull this off’. We actually ended the game thinking we could’ve won by more. To come away from a game that important against that calibre of team and to be thinking ‘wow we actually should have created a bigger lead and won more than 4-3’, I think that speaks levels to how well we approached the game that day.”

Although Geldreich agrees that the victory over the Whitecaps was a uniquely special occasion, he says all home matches are memorable in their own respect.

“The league game, right after the Whitecaps game. My mom, sister, niece and nephew came to their first Pacific game. So that game was memorable because it felt like “Family Day”. The guys from T.O.P. brought their kids too. It was just a total contrast to the Whitecaps game that was chaotic and an 18-hour event. The next day at work I was like, ‘I don’t understand how this isn’t a regional holiday’, my brain just couldn’t focus on anything else.”

“So it’s hard to compare things to the Whitecaps game because, even as a one-off event, it was something that everyone on the west coast of Canada had been anticipating since 2018 when the club was announced. The fact that it was happening here and had real stakes behind it, and then we won, it adds a whole other layer to things.”

Geldreich recalls, for lack of a better term, a ‘regular’ home match in the middle of September that reinforced the fantastic atmosphere the supporters are cultivating at Starlight Stadium.

“There were a dozen guys from England that were living in Vancouver and came over to the Island and spontaneously came to the game because they’d heard Pacific FC games were fun. They came into the supporters’ section, had an amazing time, and they were like ‘yeah we’re coming back, we might buy season tickets’. At halftime they all went and bought kits! They were like ‘this is major, major fun and Whitecaps games are boring’. That’s why they came.”

Building Future Support

Now that the long-awaited reunion between the Pacific FC team and its supporters has come and gone, it’s time to focus on continuing to grow the support in the stands and look forward to next season’s schedule of home matches.

“The part on our end is two-fold,” says Geldreich, “one, we want to show our support to the team and that’s been hard because we’ve only had so many moments to interact with the players. And the other is to build awareness and support anywhere we can to make people feel like cheering for PFC is an inclusive atmosphere where anyone can come and have a good time.”

“The more that we can make Pacific FC games an atmosphere that people want to come and participate in, the better. Then it starts being ‘oh you haven’t been to a Pacific FC game, you have to go!’. Then going to a Pacific home match will make it on everyone’s must-do summer list.”

2022 Season Tickets are now available! Stay tuned to pacificfc.ca and follow the club on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for the latest news.

ABOUT PACIFIC FOOTBALL CLUB

Founded in 2018, Pacific Football Club brings professional football to Vancouver Island. Playing out of a renovated, 6000-seat Starlight Stadium in Langford, the club provides an outlet for Canadian soccer players to compete at the professional level of the sport on home soil.