Club Overview
"Powered by the wind, waves & human vitality"
Vancouver Island is a magical place, defined by dramatic contrasting environments.
It has a vibrant, youthful energy that’s transformed Victoria from a tourist and government town into a thriving tech hub juxtaposed against the complete desolation and awe inspiring beauty of a north island rainforest.
The Capital’s manicured gardens and old world character seem worlds away from Port Hardy’s wilderness and jagged rocky shoreline. What connects it all and the people who inhabit Vancouver Island…is the Pacific Ocean.
From crashing violent waves along the exposed West Coast, to serene inlets, harbours and gulf islands…it’s the vast Pacific that brings the wildlife, the weather and visitors who become instantly spellbound by the intoxicating ocean air.
The Pacific also provides something else; a climate that allows for year round recreation which is why Vancouver Island has produced so many Canadian International Footballers.
Without Victorians Pakos, Bridge and Garraway, Duncan’s Sweeney and Alberni’s Lowery…Canada’s 1986 World Cup story many have never been written. The 86 Qualification process itself began in Victoria. There were others from that era including Bolitho and adopted Islanders Wilson and Parsons.
The legacy would continue with names like Nash, Gilbert, Straith. and a Langford lad named Simpson.
Blazing a European trail with clubs in England, Germany, Turkey and Switzerland, Josh Simpson would represent his country 43 times at the senior level. During those years the Belmont boy would become best mates with Rob Friend, another Canadian International who was also forced to leave his own country in order to chase his footballing dreams.
Now, the Pacific air has drawn Josh Simpson back as part of the ownership team behind a new CPL club, which also includes Friend and Dean Shillington. It’s a club that aspires to provide the professional opportunities that Simpson and Friend didn’t have in their late teens.
A club that, like the ocean, intends to sculpt a new and exciting landscape, this time for the beautiful game in one of the world’s most beautiful places. A team reflective of the Island itself; attractive, rugged and bubbling with the energy of an incoming wave.