With this year’s winter break comes a road trip to Surrey as senior men’s Vancouver Island Soccer League will send two all-star teams to face the Fraser Valley Soccer League.
At 1 p.m. on Saturday, the VISL Masters’ all-stars will play Fraser Valley at Newton Athletic Park, followed by the VISL Premier all-stars against Fraser Valley at 3:15 p.m.
The VISL are the incumbent champs as they won both games when the all-star day was held at Layritz Park in Saanich last year.
The 2016-17 VISL Premier features Vancouver Island Wave player-coach Blair Sturrock, Lakehill’s Kean de Vries and Gorge’s Ian Walker, Jon Shah and Dominic Colontonio. Also on the team are Vic West’s Riley O’Neill, Bryan Taylor, Mathias Raps and Nathan Bird, Bays Utd.’s Wes Barrett and Alex Redpath, Cowicahn’s Govinda Innes, Craig Gorman, Steve Scott, Cooper Barry, Tyler Hughes and Kevan Brown and Patrick Nelson and Nanaimo’s Paddy Grieg. Cowichan’s Glen Martin and Neall Rowlings are the coach and manager, respectively.
The Masters team is seeking its fourth straight all-star title with plenty of Saanich-based players. UVic Alumni lead the way with Nando Dunic, Will Moore, Jason Owen, Stef Olcen, Mike Hoffman and Sean Battistoni.
Gorge masters player Robbie Veenhof also makes the cut, as do four Saanich Fusion Old School players, Jeevan Manhas, Elcidio Cabral, Steph Steiner and Matt Pye, and two Cordova Bay Bobcats, Jeff Brown and Scott Travers.
The team is coached by Cowichan’s Kevin James with Gorge’s Brian Williams managing and Moreno Stefani (of Team Sales) sponsoring.
The senior men’s Island championship is scheduled for the weekend of April 1 and 2.
