Semi-pro soccer back on the pitch
Garden City’s Club Roma awarded licence to field League1 Ontario squad
“We want kids who are looking to play at a higher level. We don’t want the guy who has played already and is just playing for the heck of it.” CARMINE PROVENZANO ST. CATHARINES ROMA WOLVES LEAGUE1 ONTARIO TEAM OPERATIONS MANAGER
Premier Division men’s soccer could return to Niagara as early as April.
If all goes well in ongoing efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Ontario, the St. Catharines Roma Wolves will play up to 19 games in a regular season scheduled to wrap up in September.
Home games would be played Sunday afternoons at 500-capacity Roma Park, at the club’s facilities on Vansickle Road in St. Catharines.
“It used to be teams played each other once, but I’m not sure how the schedule is going to go. I don’t know if they’re going to divide into two conferences,” said Carmine Provenzano, operations manager for the new team.
COVID-19 cancelled League1 Ontario’s seventh season in 2020, but that didn’t stop the highest level of soccer in the province from adding teams in Guelph, Milton, Waterloo and St. Catharines.
This year will also mark the first year of competition for Hamilton United, which had been scheduled to make its debut in ’20.
Provenzano, who spearheaded the application process on behalf of Club Roma, stopped short of calling the new teams expansion franchises.
“It’s not a franchise, it’s a licence under the CPL (Canadian Premier League) and under Ontario Soccer,” he said.
Club Roma’s application was submitted in October and the new licences were awarded in late January.
“There was a competition of probably 11 teams vying for three spots that were available.”
Once it kicks off, League1 will be the highest level in Niagara and second-highest in Canada.
“Right now, the pyramid of play is the Canadian Premier League, that’s the first. Then there’s Division II, but there are no teams in Division II, and League1 falls in Division III,” Provenzano said.
“It’s equivalent, I’m going to say, to the Icedogs, except players will be a little bit older than Icedog players.”
Hamilton Forge FC is the closest CPL team to Niagara.
Unlike Icedog players and others competing in the Ontario Hockey League, players participating in League1 Ontario would be eligible to receive scholarships.
“You could go two ways with League1,” Provenzano said. “You could say you’re a semiprofessional team in which you pay some players, or you can say you’re fully amateur — which we’re going to do — and have everybody eligible to move on to scholarships.
“We’re looking at the elite five per cent of players who are looking to get a scholarship, move on to post-secondary education somewhere else, maybe in the States, or play League1 and get drafted into the CPL.”
Having a League1 team to aspire to will fill a void in Niagara, as far as Club Roma is concerned.
“We have a gap from about 16 to 23 — actually, 16 and beyond — where kids have to go out of the region to play,” Provenzano said. “At the grassroots level, it’s more recreational, but if you get to that level where you figure your son or daughter loves the sport and participate for a long time, the men’s team at least would be a goal, I would hope.
“Typically, you try to build from the ground up. In this case, we’re building from the top down.”
He believes it’s important for Niagara to be represented in Ontario’s top men’s league.
“I think it’s not just Roma,” Provenzano said. “For me, it’s important for the region to be in League1. We’re not looking at this as a ‘Roma team.’ We’ve got the name and the licence, but we want to be able to elevate players we have in this area to that team.”
Head coach Federico Turriziani will be assisted by Davide Massafra and open tryouts could begin in about three weekends, pending approval from regulatory authorities.
“But we’re going to have to wait for direction from Ontario Soccer as far as being able to have tryouts and understanding the stipulations with the pandemic itself,” Provenzano said.
“It’s up in the air right now,” he added.
There are no hard and fast age limitations in League1. Most roster spots historically have been filled by players 25 and younger, but teams are allowed to have players older than that.
Club Roma intends to focus on putting younger players on the pitch.
“We’re not necessarily interested in having a lot of older players. We want kids who are looking to play at a higher level,” Provenzano said. “We don’t want the guy who has played already and is just playing for the heck of it.”
While players can be as young as16, realistically the entry level is 18.
“To be an 18-year-old playing in that league, you have to be extraordinary,” Provenzano said. “I see the team right now as being 19 to 20 to 23 years old.”
League1 teams don’t have to field a reserve squad this year, meaning they can carry 25 to 28 players.
Just how many of those players on the new Niagara-based team will be from the region is unclear.
“It’s tough to say until we see everybody,” Provenzano said. “We want to build from the region out, so we want to be a community-based team.
“However, we need to be at the level of League1, at least in our minds.”
League1 teams don’t have rights to prospects from their regions, but must be informed before a rival club can talk with a player.
“It’s the same as any semi-professional league,” the Club Roma operations manager said. “You can play anywhere you want, you can come from anywhere you want.”
Growing up in Niagara Falls, Provenzano drifted toward playing high school football at the former Niagara Falls Collegiate after his soccer options diminished, but his son was spared a similar fate.
Carson Provenzano, a goalkeeper, is currently in Orlando, Fla., training with the Philadelphia Fury, the semi-pro team he joined after attending Brighton Academy and John Wood Community College, both in the United States. He attended Saint Francis Catholic Secondary School in St. Catharines.
The St. Catharines Wolves, Club Roma’s last semi-pro team, disbanded in 2014 after about 20 years and two championships — 1998 and 2001 — competing in the Canadian Soccer League.