Scotia soccer club

Scotia Soccer Club was established due to an expansion of soccer clubs within the Suburban Region of Nova Scotia, Canada.
History: The Suburban Soccer District in Halifax County, recognized a concern of its membership to create teams that were competitive in the growing soccer community in Nova Scotia, Canada. A plan was visualized, and in the fall of 1992, the concept of a competitive soccer club, Scotia Olympics Soccer Club, was established. The four clubs in Suburban had many competitive teams at the A level (later changed to tier 1). The four clubs comprised of Beaver Bank, Bedford, River Lake and Sackville were not as strong or competitive as the teams from the larger clubs in Halifax/Dartmouth. In order to compete at a more advanced level, the goal was to combine coaches and players from the four clubs in the Suburban Soccer District and form teams which would then work on becoming competitive with other clubs in the province. The concept of joining forces and talent would result in stronger teams and these teams would be the basis of a new club. The original clubs would still offer and support the mini and recreational programs although they would no longer have competitive teams.
In 1993, Suburban Soccer District agreed to adopt this new organizational structure and along with the four member clubs it was agreed to create a fifth club, Scotia Olympics Soccer Club, which became the tier 1 club for the District. The first year was not without growing pains and the first season went off to a rough start.
The first Scotia teams consisted of a second division men’s team coached by Manuel Escobar, an under 17 girls team coached by Jonathon Mathews, an under 15 girls team with John Keating and Dave Pentz as coaches, as well as an under 15 boys team with Brian Gardiner as coach. The teams were proudly sporting the new distinctive blue, red and white jerseys along with red shorts and blue socks. The senior men suggested the use of the Scotia name, as it was similar to a team name which they played on in their youth. in 2010 most of the men are playing on a Masters Senior Men team, called Old Scotia.
Each season, Scotia would work closely with the four other clubs encouraging the best players to tryout for the competitive teams. This worked very well for a number of years and more players joined to give a full slate of teams which were becoming very competitive at the provincial level.
After a few years, Scotia Olympics Soccer Club decided to add Tier 2A teams to support the Tier 1 program. The Tier 2A players would receive training along with the Tier 1 players and would have the ability to play up, when needed. This was a very attractive feature to the program. By 1998 the Club boasted as having 5 tier 1 teams, 10 tier 2 teams, plus men and women senior teams.
In the fall of 2000, because of the predicted demise of the Forest Hills Soccer Club in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, three new teams were attracted to Scotia, along with a new part-time Technical Director, John Kehoe. Not only was John instrumental in bringing with him both new teams in Senior A Women and Men, Jamie Sawler followed with the under 18 girls team. John’s presence strengthened the Club, as he was well respected at the National and University level, while simultaneously continuing his coaching at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, as the Head Coach for the men’s soccer team. The following summer, Scotia Senior Women won Provincials and then in October brought home a silver medal from the Canadian Nationals. It was the first year a Scotia team had represented Nova Scotia at the national level. In 2002 the team had a second chance at Nationals and brought home a bronze medal. John made the move from Acadia University to St. Mary’s University in Halifax, making the switch from coaching men to coaching women. Alan Jazic took over the Scotia Senior Men team and Jamie Sawler vacated his position leaving the under 18 girls team for John. John was then able to focus his attention on the two top level female teams in the Club while continuing his skills and training program for the remaining teams. John continued to coach the under 18 girls team (taking them to Canadian Nationals in 2007) and Senior Women until he vacated his position in 2007.
After several years of success with Scotia Olympics Soccer Club, Sackville United Soccer Association, decided to pursue the option to have their own competitive teams, and to do this they felt they had to leave the Suburban District (which by then had changed its name to Scotia District). Soccer Nova Scotia granted Sackville their own district which was separate and distinct from the remaining clubs in Scotia District. This decreased the ability for Scotia Soccer Club to automatically draw on the large player base from Sackville. But since Scotia still had a strong background in training and coaching, it continued to attract new players and was competitive in most age groups.
By 2002, Bedford Soccer Association had gained more qualified coaches and consequently had the ability to increase the numbers of tier 2A teams in the District. But unlike Sackville, they saw a continued benefit to remain with the other clubs and saw no reason to leave the Scotia District. The move to create additional tier 2A teams was considered to be an asset in the growth of the District. Bedford expressed no interest in the tier 1 system and continued to send their advanced players to Scotia’s tryouts.
At the same time the Beaver Bank and River Lake Soccer Clubs were experiencing difficulty in obtaining volunteers for their executives and teams and had expressed an interest in merging with Scotia Olympics. It was decided to investigate the possibility of a merger as there was much to gain in many facets. In 2003, the merger became a reality and a new club, Scotia Soccer Club, was created. Scotia was now a full service club, offering programs in competitive, non-competitive and mini soccer. At this point, there was much more involved in the administrative level of the Club than what a volunteer would be able to handle, and a part-time position was created. Diana Noel (who previously held the position unofficially for Scotia for many years) was successful in becoming Scotia Soccer Club’s first Administrator.
In 2005, the Canadian Soccer Association ranked Scotia Soccer Club, 27 out of 303 clubs across Canada, and forth in the province. Making it one of the strongest and sought after clubs in the area.
In 2007, Scotia decided to create a position for a full time Technical Director. Mesut Mert, a past professional soccer player who played for both the Montreal Impact and the Calgary Mustangs, accepted the newly created position.
Scotia has produced several strong athletes in soccer and other sports. Several of Scotia’s players have participated in the National Training Centre. Ante Jazic from Bedford, is Scotia’s most notable alumni. Ante has played on the Los Angeles Galaxy team and was traded in 2009 to Chivas in LA, another Major League Soccer team. Nkem Ezurikefrom Lower Sackville, has made an impact on the province by being the first soccer player from Nova Scotia to have made a goal at an international competition for Canada, as part of the Canadian under 17 National Team competing in New Zealand in 2008. James Sheppard, from Lower Sackville, spent his youth playing both soccer and hockey and made a choice in 2005 at the age of 17 that he was not returning to soccer (where he last played, under 16 Tier 1), but instead to focus and pursue his hockey career. In 2006 James was 9th place draft in the NHL and chosen to play for the Minnesota Twins.
At its peak, Scotia Soccer Club had approximately 1300 players ranging from under 4 to senior levels and still able to draw from its original area including Bedford, Waverley, Fall River, and all the nearby communities. Scotia offered a wide range of programs for all ages, from entry level to competitive. Scotia was still part of the larger Suburban Soccer Region, which included Sackville and East Hants and continued to attract players from these areas, players who were interested in a higher level of soccer. Scotia offered additional soccer training at all levels, as well as strong and committed Academy program at the mini level. The results showed, and each year Scotia teams consistently won tournaments and Provincial soccer titles sending tier 1 teams to represent Nova Scotia at the Canadian national level.
In 2009 there was a concern amongst the four clubs in the Region: Scotia Soccer Club, Bedford Soccer Association, Sackville United Soccer Association and East Hants Soccer Association, that in order to put their best players forward and compete at the highest level of teams in the province, they would have to unite together and form a new club. This was in a similar pattern to that of 1992, but were not starting from scratch, but instead would be able to fill a full slate of Tier 1 teams in all age groups and draw from the large bank of experienced soccer personnel. In 2010 the new club was formed and called "Suburban FC," a name not unfamilar to the history of soccer in the region. Suburban FC would offer Tier 1 and Premier Senior soccer teams, and would feed from the other four clubs. The Tier 1 teams would play in the Nova Scotia Soccer League against other teams in Nova Scotia. Scotia Soccer Club would become one of three clubs offering teams at the Tier 2, Mini and Academy levels. The Academy program would prepare and train players to become the future Tier 1 players for Suburban FC. Technical Directors would stay in place at each of their 4 feeder clubs, and their skills could be shared. The creation of Suburban FC came 18 years after Scotia Olympics had been formed to take on a similar role. The original concept of Scotia Olympics continues under a new name, Suburban FC.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu