Surrey United Mens Soccer Club

The first embryonic signs of Surrey United Mens program emerged in August 1983 when Martin Foden became the coach of a Fraser Valley Soccer League Division One team called Keg Shooters (which had formerly been known as Domtar United). In those days it was fashionable to call the team after the name of their primary sponsor and the Scott Road Keg was a very major sponsor to the tune of $2,000. It is somewhat ironic that almost twenty years later that one rarely hears about a sponsor who puts up that amount of sponsorship in this age of tight expense control in today's corporate world.

The Keg Shooters lost only one game that first season and in winning the first division gained promotion to the premier division where it has remained ever since and this winter will be commencing our nineteenth successive season as the current longest serving team. In that 83/84 season "United" made it to the final of the Pakenham Cup and against all odds beat the premier division champions and FVSL powerhouse Aldergrove United 1-0 at Fort Langley on a goal scored by Warren Crowley.

The original squad included Fred Wood, Les Williams, Rob McIntyre, Rod Maley, John Strating, Al Werbowski, Randy Ardiel, Randy LeClerc, Randy Carmichael, Gord Deleeuw, Jeff Judson, Warren Crowley, Gary Maley, Ron Farrell, Jean Verlinden and Brian Champagne.

With a couple of extra signings the following season United finished a creditable fourth in the premier league and once again won the Pakenham Cup. It was those two teams that laid the foundation for what has been a trademark of Surrey United over the past nineteen years. The key characteristics were hard work, determination, personal sacrifice, solid team organization and a collective team desire to do whatever was necessary for the team to win. However, two of those original players have sadly since passed away taken far too early in their young lives. Fred wood died aged 32 from Leukiemia but the club did him proud by raising over $8,000 for Bone Marrow research by running an unforgettable 24 hour indoor soccer marathon. More recently, Randy Ardiel died in a freak road vehicle accident leaving behind a wife and four beautiful children. This website now allows us the opportunity to publicly acknowledge their contribution to the foundation of our soccer club.

In those early days United played its home games at Princess Margaret High School oval and attracted considerable local interest. It wasn't long before United ended up with a second team that won the Division Two championship in its first year in 1985/86 to gain promotion to the first division. That two team infrastructure remained in place for many years and although United won another first division title, finished as silver medallist in the summer games in 1988 and had some Bradner Cup (Presidents Cup) and Pakenham Cup losses in the finals it had to wait for the nineties before emerging as the Premier Division Champions in 1992. United went from strength to strength achieving an unparalleled run of Fraser Valley league dominance and in 1995,1996,1997 &1998 it rattled off four successive Premier and First Division Championships, two President Cup wins, a Pakenham cup win and in 1998 lost 2-1 in extra-time in the final of the B.C. provincial championships. This on field success then provided United with the most significant change in its fifteen year history because in an unparalleled and unique gesture the Vancouver Metro Soccer League, in association with Fraser Valley Soccer league, created a VMSL expansion to accommodate Surrey United. United had outgrown their "big fish in a little pond" status and needed the fresh challenges of a vastly superior Vancouver Metro Premier Soccer League.

Off the field of play in 1994 an important meeting in the Club's history took place between Martin Foden and Tom Duncan that eventually saw them forge what has become an unbreakable bond between the youth and adult organizations. The "new " United represented a perfect blueprint for our philosophy of creating an infrastructure that provides soccer for a lifetime and this "cradle to the grave" infrastructure caters for boys, girls, men and women of all ages. The challenge of moving to VMSL was enormous and not only was it necessary to upgrade our talent levels in order to survive at the metro premier level we also had to create an infrastructure that would support and feed that premier team. This was initially hampered by the fact that our "second team" had to play in the FVSL and we could not utilize any of those players in Metro league games. Hence, the expansion from two to four teams (VMSL Premier, VMSL U/21, FVSL Premier & FVSL Division One). It was inevitable that we would lose the tight knit identity of our small two team club but the expansion was essential in the future development of the new Surrey United club.

With a foothold in the VMSL we became the first team this side of the Fraser river to be permitted in the league. This enabled us to offer the highest calibre of mens soccer in Surrey and provided us with the opportunity to prevent the migration of local talent to other teams in Vancouver. Our move into the new league coincided with a move to our new playing facilities and current home at Cloverdale Athletic Park. On the playing side we set out a four year plan which had the premier team successfully avoiding relegation in its first year, establishing mid-table respectability in the second year, becoming a top quartile team in the third year and emerge as a title contender in the fourth year. The blueprint proved to work to perfection seeing the mens team win the premier championship last season and our very young (average age 18) Under 21 mens team also won the provincial championship. The high league placings of both our Division One and Division Two CAT teams clearly demonstrates that our supporting infrastructure is an unmitigated success, however it will not stop us from continually improving and developing because no club can afford to stand still otherwise it will regress.

Off the field our own new clubhouse was completed in June 2002 and is already equipped with a massive trophy cabinet, to display our many successes and an entertainment centre to provide us with some post game enjoyment. The clubhouse project was undertaken largely due to the financial commitment of our youth and the project is ample evidence of this clubs ambitions. The clubhouse provides a much needed finishing touch in clearly establishing Surrey United as one of the elite soccer clubs in the province that caters to 1700 youth and mini players, and ten mens and three womens adult teams.

Over the years, many great players have worn our jerseys with pride and enthusiasm and we should like to thank them all for their commitment and contribution to the continuing evolution of Surrey United.

Surrey United Womens Soccer Club

Our venture into the promotion of womens soccer arose due to the considerable interest we were experiencing at the mini and youth levels where we found new girls teams registering at a very rapid rate. It was therefore appropriate for us to introduce a womens program so that we could ultimately provide a place for these young players to play when they had finished playing at the youth level.

In the early summer of 1999 Martin Foden approached a group of former SFU players who had led a somewhat nomadic existence searching for a club where they could anchor their roots. It was the perfect situation for all concerned and has turned out to be the perfect marriage. Manager Rob Sumner brought his team of talent laden ladies to commence their first season in 1999/2000 and right from the outset the players have impressed everyone with their technical ability, commitment and tenacity.

Last season 2001/2002 they won the Metro Womens Soccer League Premier division and narrowly lost in the final of the Provincial Cup. Their talent level is evidenced by the fact that seven of their squad were selected to the Vancouver Breakers and goalkeeper Nicci Wright secured a professional contract in Sweden. In addition, a number of the players have also played for the national team including Nicci, midfield/defender Randee Hermus, midfield Geri Donnelly and forward Diana Artuso. With so much talent in the team the club is naturally optimistic about their chances for winning provincial and ultimately a national championship.

In 2000/2001 we also introduced a Ladies division one team which in it's initial season had great success finishing second in the league. Unfortunately, last season there were a number of personnel changes, including the coach, and it didn't translate into a very rewarding season. However, the club would from an infrastructure perspective like to continue with a first division program for the forthcoming season but that will largely depend on the commitment and availability of players/coaches.