Thunder Bay, Ont., soccer programs struggle for space as national teams' success soars

Cameron Pytyck says that from the opening kickoff on Sunday to the final whistle when the Canadian men's national team beat Jamaica 4-0 to qualify for their first World Cup appearance since 1986, the mood at BMO Field in Toronto was "electric."

As Pytyck and his ex-pat friends who grew up playing soccer in Thunder Bay, Ont., made their way through the celebrations in Toronto's streets and bars, their conversation turned to what the event, as well as the Olympic gold-medal run of Canada's women's team, could mean to soccer culture back home.

"This needs to be a big, big, big almost slap in the face to everyone who doesn't think people in Thunder Bay, where we're from, needs facilities and needs places to play. Because this is Canada now," Pytyck said. "We need to be able to have places where kids can play and grow up, and be and do exactly what Canada did here, and be a part of that."

Tony Colistro, executive director of Thunder Bay Chill, said the club's spring soccer programs are taking names for wait lists after enrolment filled on the first day of registration. Including youth, men's and women's competitive teams as well as recreational leagues, 2,000 young people are enrolled in soccer programs, he estimated. That's nearly as many as the 2,300 playing in local minor hockey associations.

Colistro said soccer programs can't accommodate all the kids who want to play, and that will only get tighter in the future. 

"We always knew soccer was a participant sport because of the affordability," he said. "In terms of who can play, we talk about this influx of immigrants who come from all over the world. They don't come with hockey skates because that's not what they know. They know soccer." 

After a year that saw Lakehead