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.

FISU Kazan: Jackie Tessier in Poland, part 2

Jackie Tessier continues her travels overseas preparing for the FISU games in Kazan with a few more days spent in Poland and another game under the belts of the women's soccer team, this time against one of the top women's teams.

Read on for the second entry of Jackie's diary,  a special Canada Day edition, as the Confederations Cup wraps up in South America!

FISU Kazan: Jackie Tessier in Poland

The FISU Universiade games begin in Kazan, Russia at the start of next week. Ex-Queen's varsity striker and current KUSC OCSL Women's player Jackie Tessier is playing with the women's soccer team and has agreed to send in updates every few days, discussing her travels and experiences representing Canada on the international stage.

The Queen's Journal profiled her in this week's issue as a lead-up to her trip overseas.

Read on for her first blog entry.

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.

Kingston FC schedule released, first game this Sunday!

Kingston FC held a press conference at Richardson Stadium on the Queen's West Campus this afternoon where they announced their schedule for the season in the Canadian Soccer League. Co-owner and president, Joe Scanlon stated that the team was aiming for a top three finish, while fellow co-owner and chairman Lorne Abugov corrected him, suggesting that they were aiming for a top-two spot.

Kingston FC opens their season this Sunday, May 5 with a home game against Brampton City United, with the first division team kicking off at 1pm and the reserve game kicking off at 3:15pm at the West Campus turf field.

CSL sanctioned for 2013, Kingston FC season back on track

Last night, Apr 23, the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) officially released a pair of decisions that applied to the conflict between the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) and the Canadian Soccer League (CSL).

The very short summary of the decision is that the de-sanctioning of the CSL by the CSA for 2013 was delayed until February 13, 2014 rather than going into effect this year. As such, the CSL will be allowed to operate with CSA sanctioning for the 2013 season.

KUSC Women's Premier to play in the OCSL

It would not be unfair to say that Bob Machin has been around the game of soccer his entire life. His father was one of the founders of the Kingston United Soccer Club (a men's club) in the late 1940s and his brother John was instrumental in the founding of the Pittsburgh Township Soccer Club. As such, it is extremely fitting that Bob finds himself belonging to the Kingston United Soccer Club (KUSC), a club formed in 2004 with the merger of the Kingston Youth Soccer Club and the Pittsburgh Township Soccer Club.

In 2009, Bob Machin, along with Aldo Popazzi and Dimitri Senis, formed the Kingston FC women's team as part of the Kingston Women's Soccer Club (KWSC) to be entered in the Ontario Women's Soccer League (OWSL). That year, they won the East Regional division.

A change to the GKSSA friendlies vs Kingston FC

Late last week, soon before the scheduled friendlies between GKSSA teams and Kingston FC's squad, a notification was sent to most of the clubs in the Kingston area from SOSA (the local district), forwarding along an email from Bruce Henderson at the OSA, suggesting that moving forward with these games was not recommended.

Queen's Journal profile

Earlier this week, I was approached by the Queen's Journal about being interviewed for a feature in their final full edition of the year. I spoke with their sports editor Peter Morrow over lunch at the Mansion earlier this week. Their story was released today, both in print and online.

GKSSA teams playing friendlies against Kingston FC

This coming Saturday, the GKSSA's A Division winning team, Soccer Plus FC, will be facing off again a squad of players from Kingston FC's lineup in a pre-season exhibition game, the first on Kingston FC's schedule.

A second game will follow next Friday against Portuguese Benfica, the 2012 Carmine Lanzo, Sr Cup and playoff winners.

Jackie Tessier trying out for FISU's Team Canada (Updated)

The 2013 FISU Summer Universiade takes place this July 6th through 17th in the city of Kazan, in the Republic of Tararstan, part of the Russian Federation. One of Kingston's top female soccer players is hoping to be part of the women's team that Canada is sending and headed off today for the final round of tryouts.

Jackie Tessier, fresh off her fourth season with the Queen's Golden Gaels, and a third national medal in a row, left today for Burnaby, BC for a chance to make the final roster of twenty players that will be heading to the games this summer. She is following in the footsteps of Brienna Shaw and Riley Filion who played with the women's team in Harbin, China in 2011.

CSL v CSA - Sport Arbitration?

Over the last few weeks, Support Local Soccer has talked about the ongoing issues between the CSL, CSA, and OSA, discussing how this could affect local athletes involved with the Kingston FC team.

The latest news from the Canadian Soccer News is that the CSA has re-affirmed their decision to sever ties with the CSL, leaving them unsanctioned.

The report also states that the CSL has plans to go to the Sport Dispute Resolution of Canada to mediate the issue.

New Kingston Dome news?

During last night's Kingston City Council meeting, recreation and leisure staff reported that after two years, they are still waiting for work to proceed on the Westbrook Dome.

The Quarry Sportsplex closed in 2011, the last time there was an indoor facility available in the City of Kingston.

City staff suggested to Council that they continue to monitor the Westbrook Dome project, but also begin looking for a possible private sector partner to install a dome on the new turf field being built at John Machin Park this summer.

Kingston FC tryouts - UPDATE

Kingston FC had their first evening of tryouts last night, and despite the blustery weather, a number of prospects showed up.

Unfortunately, due to a recent by-law issue, the West Campus turf field was closed and the lights cannot be used until they comply with local by-laws. As such, the tryouts moved down to Tindall Field on the main Queen's Campus.

OCAA and OUA response on student-athlete eligibility

As a followup to the recent stories about the CSA's de-sanctioning of the CSL David Rowaan of SoccerWire Ontario spent a fair bit of time recently talking with officials in the OUAA, OUA, and CIS trying to get a firm handle on their stances on student-athlete eligibility if they took part in the upcoming 2013 CSL season.

Kingston FC preparing for 2013 - Open Tryouts (Updated)

Today, the CSL announced that they are preparing for the new season, despite the de-sanctioning announcement from the CSA in February.

Along with this announcement, they confirmed that the TFC Academy team had withdrawn from the league, as this would be due to issues discussed previously.

The season is expected to start late April, the league's earliest start, with Kingston FC's home opener taking place on May 5th at the Queen's West Campus field.

CSL issues: Effects on Kingston FC?

With the news this week that the CSA was not sanctioning the CSL for the 2013 season, there has been a big scramble between the CSA, CSL, and their member teams as everything tries to figure out the plans for the upcoming season.

Earlier this year on January 31st, CBC Sports released a report that the CSA had cut ties but the CSA made nothing public about the situation. On February 3, the CSL put out a press release that essentially accused the CBC story of lying. Just over a month later, the CSL confirmed the de-sanctioning in another press release on March 5th.

So... what's the deal? What does this mean to the teams? What does this mean to Kingston FC and its local players?