Fans of elite women’s soccer can get their kicks this summer
Elite women’s soccer is coming back to Calgary.
Calgary Foothills FC announced this week they’ll be fielding a team for the 2017 United Women’s Soccer season, two years after the ‘W’ league folded and the club was left with nowhere to compete.
The spring-summer league is largely comprised of clubs from the W League, as well as a couple of Women’s Premier Soccer League franchises.
More importantly for Calgarians, though, the UWS league will provide elite, local female players with a place to compete throughout the summer without having to leave home.
“It’s a great opportunity for those who want to pursue the game at the higher level,” said head coach Troye Flannery. “It’s sort of an extension of a pathway (to professional soccer). The league, in general, is for young up-and-comers, current university standouts and players who have recently left that environment but want to get seen for the next level.”
That next level is the NWSL, which is fully professional. The UWS league sits just below the NWSL and aims to function as Tier 2, and Flannery fully believes Calgary produces more than enough female talent to thrive in that environment.
“Calgary’s always been a hotbed for the female game,” Flannery said. “Even at our own club, we have six national championships and five of them are on the female side, I believe.”
The Foothills club has shown itself capable of putting a competitive team on the field in recent years. On the men’s side, the Foothills FC U23 team were division and conference champions in the PDL in 2016, making it all the way to the national championship before losing a heartbreaker.
There’s every reason to believe the women’s team can replicate that success, especially if players like Sarah Kinzner, who plays for the University of Colorado and the Canadian under-20 national team, decide to spend the summer at home in Calgary.
The Foothills team could make that decision a whole lot easier.
“Some players stay home (for university), some go abroad, but when they come back they want that elite competition in the spring-summer season,” Flannery said.