May 2022 Newsletter

VanU Members,

We hope that you have been enjoying the sunshine lately.  Here is the latest at VanU:

VanU AGM
We are going back to having AGM’s in person as per the requirements of the BC Societies Act. Our AGM will be at Dunbar Community Centre on Monday, June 20 at 7pm. More info will follow as we get closer to the date.

VanU Awards Night
We are also pleased to be able to go back to having our Awards Night in person and we’re going back with a splash! The Awards will be held at the Hollywood Theatre on Broadway on Wednesday, June 15. Invites will go out to Award winners as well as teams that have won Coastal Cup, League Cup or their BCCSL division in addition to individual award winners. Everyone who has won an award will be contacted by VanU staff and be invited to attend with their parents.

2022-23 Season
A reminder to register for the 2022-23 season. All age groups from U4 to U18 are open for registration in all levels of play. Thanks to the vast majority who have already registered. Registering helps us plan for the season and lets us allocate training times to divisional teams as early as possible. It also helps staff get the necessary information from players so we can affiliate our divisional teams for league play through our District (VYSA) by their deadlines. You can register here: https://vancouverunitedfc.com/registration-introduction

Beach Blast Tournament
We are very pleased to announce that VanU now has its own tournament! We have taken over ownership and running of the popular Beach Blast soccer tournament that has run since 2001 at Spanish Banks beach. Tournament dates are Friday August 12 to Sunday, August 14. Details are going up on our website here: https://vancouverunitedfc.com/beachblast

VanU teams will have an exclusive period to register before we open registration to the rest of the province.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
We recently signed a contract with Inclusion Incorporated to provide DEI training to our staff and Board, as well as an audit of all our systems, and look forward to working with them to learn how we can reduce barriers and make the game, and our programming, friendly and accessible to all.

New Strategic Plan
We have also contracted with Capitis Consulting, the leading youth soccer consulting group in Canada, to work with us on our new Strategic Plan. Members will be consulted on this as we roll out the process.

Blazin’ Dogs Adaptive Soccer
After two attempts to offer our own adaptive soccer program we realized it made more sense to support a group that has been offering this in our community for the past 14 years. We reached out to Abbe and Lucas Gates, founders of Blazin’ Dogs Soccer and offered to provide whatever resources they need that we have have and they have accepted. We have already started providing some physical resources and practice plans and look forward to promoting their programs to our members and continuing our support in general. For information on their programming please go to www.soccerdogs.ca

Summer Camps
Registration is open and we already have well over 200 kids registered for our Summer Camps. We have more camps this year than ever before. Every week of summer has at least one VanU camp scheduled and they’re in many locations across Vancouver. Please go here for information and a link to register: https://vancouverunitedfc.com/summer-camps

A4K Cleat Drive

VanU is continuing to support A4K in its Cleat Drive this season. Do you have any new or gently used cleats that are just sitting in your garage not being used? Now is a perfect time to do some summer cleaning and decluttering all while donating to a great organization - Athletics4Kids (A4K) helps to support children all over BC to participate in organized sport by providing families with financial assistance.

Where to drop cleats:

Saturday June 4th 2022

10am - Noon - UHILL Secondary Turf field

What types of cleats are we looking for?

A: Gently used soccer would be best but we will gladly accept football and baseball cleats as well.

What sizes?

A: Cleats that can be used for primary or secondary school student athletes (Youth: 4,5, Women: 6,7, Men: 7,8,9). That said, we will accept any cleat sizes as we are often able to donate to siblings and other family members.

Looks like this May long weekend will be pleasant and nice.  We hope that you all get to enjoy some family time together. Thank you for your support always.

Kind Regards,

Gregor Young

Executive Director, 

Vancouver United FC