September 2022 Newsletter
Hello VanU Members,
September begins our new 2022-23 season and we are already up and running with all age groups from U4-U18! VanU continues to grow with many new players joining with a variety of programs for everyone. Here's the latest information:
Early Appreciation for Volunteer Coaches and Team Managers
VanU would like to thank all the volunteer coaches and team managers that have signed up this season. We really couldn't run a smooth program without your dedication and time. Some teams are still looking for team managers and additional coaches. If you are able to help out your child's team, please reach out to your coach.
National Day of Mourning for Queen Elizabeth
Programming will not be affected for the federal holiday marking the death of the Queen on Monday, September 19.
BCCSL Game Schedules
Each week we are provided with a confirmed list of home games for Vancouver clubs by our District. This overrides game locations and times on the BCCSL website’s schedule page. We post this weekly schedule here: https://vancouverunitedfc.com/
Just Play
We are pleased to be offering our 4-week Just Play program again this fall for players born 2013-2017. A great intro to soccer to those who have little to no experience and also for those who just want to come out and play another day of soccer! We have 3 locations: David Lam Park, Sunset Park and China Creek Park. Just Play begins on Saturday September 24 and Sunday September 25 depending on location. For more information about Just Play and to register: https://
First Kicks U4/U5
New locations at David Lam, Sunset Park and China Creek Park for our youngest VanU players! Click here for more info and to register: https://vancouverunitedfc.com/
Truth and Reconciliation Day
There will be no programming on Friday, September 30 to mark Truth and Reconciliation Day. Instead we encourage players and their families to attend the UBC women’s and men’s soccer games at Thunderbird Stadium.
They will be giving out 100 orange shirts to the first 100 that come to the women’s game and then same for the men’s game.
There will also be reconciliation stars for attendees to fill out and place on a wall. An elder has also been invited for the opening prior to the women’s match and a dance group performing for half time.
UBC women kickoff is at 5pm vs UBC Okanagan and the men play at 7:30pm against University of Northern BC. Games are free for UBC students and kids under 18 years old. Adult tickets are $10. Everyone, even those who get in free, must have a ticket though. You can get them here.
Field Shortages
We are in the unfortunate situation where we have had some of our U Hill turf times taken away this year while our registration numbers are increasing. Factor in that the Park Board have not built new fields that our clubs can book almost a decade and it means that teams are feeling the results of this.
Many of our teams are going to find that they do not have a set home field and game time this season. Both club staff and the District Scheduler are looking to try to put teams on the best available fields each week and those options change regularly. Please be patient with this and know that several people are working to provide good fields that are ideally located in logical places for our teams to play.
Referee Shortage
We are in the third year of a referee shortage. You can expect that several games will not have game officials. We have expanded our Game Official staff and created a Referee Mentor position as well as a Referee Course Instructor position. We also have a new Referee game scheduler this season. You can expect to see courses for new referees and those who want to move from coaching small-sided games to 11 a side games soon as we try to do our part to enlarge the pool of referees. We will remind parents and coaches that we lose 50% of new referees each year and the number one reason given by referees who leave is the abuse they take from spectators and team officials.
Young referees are on learning curves. Expect mistakes and if you feel you are about to yell criticism at them ask yourself if there’s any other public setting where it’s okay to angrily shout at 14 year olds who are trying to work while surrounded by adults watching them.
Strategic Plan and DEI Training
Thank you to everyone who filled out the comprehensive survey that Capitis Consulting put together for our Strategic Plan. The results were presented to the Board this past Monday. While there is lots for us to consider, learn from and incorporate into our next Strat Plan what was great to see was incredibly high member satisfaction with programming. Capitis have done these surveys for over 50 clubs across the country and they remarked that this level of satisfaction put VanU in the top 5% of all the clubs they’d worked with. Work on the Strategic Plan will continue through the fall.
What is also emerging, as was expected, in the Strategic Plan is our members strong wish for the club to be inclusive and more diverse. As mentioned in previous emails, we have contracted with Inclusion Incorporated and have been working with them on a comprehensive array of diversity, equity and inclusion workshops and tools that train staff and Board members in this areas while also providing a roadmap for the future. Staff have also taken a Safe Sport workshop this summer and more will be taking a series of Conflict Management workshops in the fall. We are grateful to BC Soccer and ViaSport for facilitating these.
If you have any questions, please email us at: info@vancouverunitedfc.com
We wish everyone a fun, safe and enjoyable season ahead!
Thanks,
Gregor Young
Executive Director,
Vancouver United FC
Game | Club | Community
I acknowledge and am grateful that I live, work and play on the unceded territories of the first nations people of BC including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations.
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