By Ciara McCormack BC Soccer Web
Up Against It: Why our Soccer System Fails
Like most of the BC soccer community, I was extremely saddened to hear of the passing of Roman Tulis and found myself tearing up when I came across the news. Although I had never met him before, I was friends with many of his players, both male and female. His players always possessed supreme technical ability and everyone spoke so highly of his methods of teaching, his passion, and his integrity in the game. Through his obvious passion for the game and the belief it could be done better, I admired the way he didn’t put his energy into the politics that envelop the game in Canada but instead embarked on building opportunities for players that backed his strong passion for and knowledge of the game. He quietly did his own thing and let the accomplishments of his players speak for themselves.
In the same manner that Roman saw a deficiency in the system and took action to add another option for the benefit of the players, a group of us twenty-something elite female players started the girlsCan Western Canada Soccer Showcase, a professionally run College Showcase for female players in grades 9-12. While on one hand, we have some fantastic stories that have come out of the first three years of the Showcase, this year again elucidated some very real problems that exist within the soccer system in BC and Canada. I believe these problems need to be highlighted and changed in order to move soccer forward in a real way in this province and country. I will highlight the history of running this showcase over the last three years to show just one tiny example within many others, of the type of resistance people face when trying to sincerely change the soccer landscape for the better in this province and country. In giving my experience, perhaps it will serve to uncover the answers that I always have had as a player as to why we always seem to be falling so far short of our potential to be a true soccer powerhouse.
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