New soccer league holding open tryouts

Want to play in the Canadian Premier League? Here’s your chance.

The fledgling Canadian pro soccer league is holding open tryouts for men 16 and older in seven Canadian cities. The trial dates and locations are:

Halifax: Sept. 20-21

Montreal: Sept. 27-28 Hamilton: Oct. 1-2

Toronto: Oct. 11-12

Winnipeg: Oct. 18-19

Calgary: Oct. 25-26

Victoria: Nov. 5-6

Registration is $200 for the twoday trials, although you will have to survive the cut to get to Day 2.

It’s a start to populating the rosters of HFX Wanderers FC, York 9 FC, Forge FC, Valour FC, Cavalry FC, FC Edmonton and Pacific FC ahead of the league’s kickoff next spring.

Former Canadian international forward Alex Bunbury will lead the trials, with coaches and/or technical staff from each of the seven CPL teams in attendance (Hamilton’s Forge FC has yet to announce its coach).

“There’s a lot of good players (in Canada) that very often have not been given the opportunity,” said James Easton, vice-president of soccer operations for the CPL.

“We want to make sure that we’re looking far and wide, in all the nooks and crannies, and giving opportunities to players who think they can be professionals,” he added. “So we don’t want to leave any stone unturned.”

Easton has firsthand experience. His father Jim Easton was the first manager of the Vancouver Whitecaps.

The 51-year-old Bunbury, a member of the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame, won 66 caps for Canada from 1986 to 1997.

He got his start at age 18 with the Hamilton Steelers in the nowdefunct Canadian Soccer League before leaving at 23, first for England’s West Ham and then Portugal’s Club Maritimo.

His advice to those who come out is to come prepared and be in shape.