Kingston FC status moving forward...

As mentioned a few weeks ago, Kingston FC withdrew from the CSL this season. The story that came out over the next few days was that the team had applied to the Ontario Soccer Association in an attempt to enter League1 Ontario as a second eastern Ontario team after the Kingston Clippers.

Today, the organization announced that they are working toward a move into the OSA structure as an OSA Recognized Non-Club Academy (ORNCA).

Queen's Men's Soccer Coach hunt still on...? (Updated)

It's less than a week away from OUA training camps opening, including the Queen's camps here in Kingston. And yet the Queen's men's soccer team seems no closer to having a head coach in place.

Chris Gencarelli stepped down at the start of June after four years in charge of the team. During his tenure, he won the OUA East Coach of the Year in 2012, the year he led the squad to a first place finish in their division with an 11-1-2 record.

KUSC Women making their mark in Ottawa-Carleton

Last year, Bob Machin moved his top-level Kingston women's team from the Ontario Women's Soccer League (OWSL) to the Ottawa-Carleton Soccer League (OCSL) into the premier division, where they finished in third place behind the Falcons Fury and Gloucester, twelve points off the pace of the two leading teams.

After an off-season requiring replacements of almost half of the team's players, the team is ready to compete for the OCSL Women's Premier title in 2014.

L1O: Cataraqui Clippers league schedule announced

This morning, the Ontario Soccer Association officially released the League1 Ontario full league schedule, including the games to be played by the Cataraqui Clippers.

As mentioned previously, the Clippers will be opening their 2014 season at the OSA's Soccer Centre in Vaughan on May 31st against Masters FA with an 11am kickoff.

The Clippers will host the Toronto FC Academy the following weekend at home on Saturday, June 7th at 5pm at the main St. Lawrence College field.

L1O: Cataraqui Clippers League1 Ontario press conference

This afternoon, the Cataraqui Clippers held a press conference at the Ambassador Hotel in Kingston, along with Ron Smale, the president of the Ontario Soccer Association, and Dino Rossi, League1 Ontario chairman and OSA board member.

The conference was used to make a formal announcement to the Kingston (and area) media and to show off some of the players that will be playing with their League1 Ontario team this summer.

CSL: Kingston FC 2014 final schedule

On Tuesday, the final version of the CSL's 2014 schedule was released.

There have been several changes for Kingston FC since the original release, with most of the game weekends being the same, but the first division team's game times have been adjusted to kick off at 6:45pm on Saturdays and 1:00pm on Sundays. The second division schedule has been brought in line with the first division schedule, with their reserve games kicking off at 3:15pm on Sundays (after the first team game) and at 4:30pm on Saturdays (before the first team game).

Both divisions now begin play on May 24 and wrap up on October 5.

Outdoor Season is almost upon us... (Updated)

As the snow begins to melt and the grass (and turf) underneath begins to become visible and obvious, outdoor seasons are and tournaments are starting to warm up the turf in the Kingston area.

This past weekend, one of the last indoor tournaments took place, the Queen's High School indoor invitational, out at the Kingston 1000 Islands Sportsplex in Westbrook.

On the boys side, St. Pius X from Ottawa repeated as the boys champions with a 2-0 victory over Cornwall's St. Joseph's. Eight teams started pool play with St. Pius X and St. Joseph's finishing first in their respective divisions and a bye to the semi finals. St. Joseph's beat Belleville's Bayside 1-0 in the semis to advance to the final. St. Pius beat Pickering's Pine Ridge 2-0 in the semi finals on their way to the championship.

The girls side saw another repeat champion, also from Ottawa, as St. Francis Xavier HS won in a thrilling 1-0 overtime victory over Alliston's Banting Memorial. Thirteen teams started pool play with St. Francis Xavier, Banting Memorial and Whitby's Donald A Wilson capturing their respective divisions. Banting Memorial reached the final with a 1-0 quarter final victory over Smiths Falls, and a 1-0 semi final victory over Donald Wilson. St. Francis Xavier beat Bayside 3-1 in the quarter finals, and Pine Ridge 4-0 in the semi finals on their way to capturing the title.

League1 Ontario announced, Cataraqui Clippers playing

This afternoon, the Ontario Soccer Association officially unveiled their League1 Ontario (L1O) competition beginning this summer, and here in Kingston, it was revealed that the Cataraqui Clippers were one of the ten inaugural teams taking part, playing as the Kingston Cataraqui Clippers.

The official announcement and presentation took place this afternoon at the OSA's Soccer Centre in Vaughan, Ontario and was attended by the Cataraqui Clippers' technical director Chris Eveleigh and former Kingston FC player, Jason Massie.

CSL: Kingston FC 2014 schedule released

The 2014 CSL schedule was quietly released this weekend, shortly in advance of the OSA's League 1 Ontario announcement this Tuesday (April 8, at 2pm ET).

The first division is scheduled to begin on May 24 and wrap up on October 5, while the second division kicks off May 7 and finishes on September 7.

Please note that a revised schedule has since been released.

CSL to bring litigation against the CSA

CSL Chairman and President, Vincent Ursini appeared on Sunday morning's International Sports Report program on TSN 1050 this week to discuss the de-sanctioning of the Canadian Soccer League by the Canadian Soccer Association and their plans moving forward.

The interview came at the tail end of the program and was brief in nature, beginning at about the 1:23:00 mark. In it, Ursini briefly discussed the events of the CSA's expelling the CSL as a member and that the CSL has launched litigation against the CSA to appeal the situation, using the same legal firm as when they appealed the de-sanctioning in 2013.

Canadian Soccer League website back online, CSL response

Earlier this week, the website of the Canadian Soccer League went entirely offline and the domain became unavailable.

As of late yesterday afternoon, the Canadian Soccer League brought the site back online, though with a number of broken links, at a slightly altered address, canadiansoccerleague.ca

Stan Adamson, Director of Media and PR for the CSL, responded to my inquiries on the matter, laying out the plans for the future of the CSL online.

Canadian Soccer League website vanished? Sanctioning?

At some point on Monday morning, the Canadian Soccer League's website disappeared from the internet, domain name and all.

There were some technical glitches with the site last week as their news feed disappeared a couple of times and their database of news, press releases, and statistics vanished, but nothing as surprising as the domain name no longer existing.

CSL: Kingston FC 2014 roster

This past week, Kingston FC announced their roster for the upcoming 2014 CSL season.

The announcement was held in the Queen's Alumni Lounge at the ARC and was presented by main owner Lorne Abugov and three returning players, Joe Zupo (ex-Queen's University captain), Guillaume Surot (CSL 2013 MVP and Golden Boot winner), and Ryan McCurdy (Kingston FC veteran since year one).

Queen's West Campus noise exemption request (Updated)

Over the last several months, there has been an ongoing issues with local Kingston residents near the Queen's West Campus turf field, located out near Richardson Stadium (corner of Sir John A MacDonald Blvd and Johnson St).

This Tuesday (March 4), Kingston City Council (as part of their agenda) will be receiving a recommendation from City staff as to how an exemption for the noise by-law should be applied to the field.

Local talent tagged for TAG

The Ontario Soccer Association and the Referee Development Department announced the leaders for the newly formed Technical Advisory Group (TAG) today. This group is designed to replace the current Instructors and Assessors Advisory Groups for referee development in the province with an eye toward creating more inclusivity and succession planning.

The main goal of this new group was to be a counterpart to the OSA's Technical Advisory Committee, which advises the board of directors on all matters soccer related, but seems to concentrate more on the player and coach development stream.

Bill Orme

Bill and Eden Orme
(courtesy KLBC)

I'm taking today to do something a bit atypical for this blog, specifically to honour my first ever soccer coach, Bill Orme.

When I first began playing "organized" soccer with the Kingston Youth Soccer Association back in the day, I often played at the McCullough Park fields here in Kingston, which was fairly close to home. My best friend and neighbour Mark Staveley was playing and his dad, Howard Staveley, was one of the two coaches, along with a co-worker of his, Bill Orme. Bill's two sons also played for the team, Will and Steve (and even though Steve was a year or two younger than the rest of us, he definitely wasn't out of place on our motley crew).

As is often the case with youth house league teams, most people were played in positions they disliked horribly (I was played as an outside left striker in modern parlance) and there were one or two great players on the team (I was not one of them), Bill and Howard managed to instill a love of the game in me at a young age, something I'm certain that both of them since regretted!

CSL: Kingston FC - 2014 Kickoff

Yesterday afternoon, Kingston FC held their 2014 Launch Press Conference at the Queen's ARC in the Alumni Lounge.

The team made several announcements about their upcoming 2014 season, some new ownership interests, a new partnership with Queen's University, and some player news.

They also unveiled their new logo (seen here), a new update done by a Toronto based graphic designer, Jennifer Coghill.

During their discussions, they talked about their objectives for 2014 (and beyond), and what the new governance situation with the Canadian Soccer League (CSL) means for them moving forward.

KUSC Women's Premier team to play Kean University

Media Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KUSC Women's Premier team to play Kean University

The KUSC Women's Premier team playing in the Ottawa Carleton Soccer League will be facing New Jersey's Kean University Cougars on Friday, August 9 at 6pm at the John Machin International Fields.

Dome construction... two now? More?

The Westbrook Dome group put out a press release this past Thursday afternoon stating that construction on their dome has begun anew. This is the dome project taking place at the Westbrook Golf Club on Westbrook Road off of Highway 2 a few kilometres east of Odessa.

A second dome project is in the works in Loyalist Township near the intersection of Taylor-Kidd Boulevard and County Road 6 (a few kilometres south of Odessa).

Dome news! But not where you expected...

EMC Kingston published a story at the end of last week discussing the new dome going up in the Kingston area that will be ready to go by October 1.

Of course, the twist to the story is that this dome will be near Amherstview (corner of Taylor-Kidd Boulevard and Wilton Road, near the GKSSA's Barr Homes Soccerplex) rather than at Westbrook.

The dome will be 300 feet by 200 feet and stand 60 feet tall and located in the Loyalist East Business Park, costing close to 3.2 million dollars all told.