By Klara Pachner
Women’s soccer in Ottawa just got a kick-start. A new team from the city has been added to the top division of the Women’s Soccer League, North America’s premier women’s circuit.
“This is the pinnacle of women’s soccer in the area,” says Andy Nera, head coach of the new Ottawa Fury.
“It’s very exciting. It’s a huge step forward for women’s soccer in this region,” says Morgan Quarry, communications officer for the Canadian Soccer Association. “Competition will be at a much higher level.”
The Fury is the third Canadian team in the top tier of the Women’s Soccer League (W-League). The two other Canadian teams are the Laval Dynamite and the Toronto Inferno, which joined the 32-team league in its fifth year.
The Ottawa Fury, whose members have yet to be officially picked, will be made up mostly of players from the South Nepean United Spirits, who play in the Ottawa-Carleton soccer league and have won two gold medals and a bronze in the last three Canadian club championships.
The tryouts for the Fury, currently underway at Lansdowne Park and Carleton University, are open to anyone. Players come from all over the Ottawa region and range in age from 18 to 30.
Nera says he expects to pick the final team sometime during the second week of April, about one month before the Fury begins its 16-game season against Laval at Carle-ton’s Keith Harris Stadium.
Former South Nepean United Spirits player Danielle Vella, who recently played for the national team in Portugal at the Algarve Cup, is one of about 25 or 30 players trying out for the team.
“The Fury is going to bring excitement back to soccer,” she says.
“There’s nothing better than playing competitive soccer week in, week out.”
Kristina Kiss, who like Vella was a member of the South Nepean United Spirits and played in the Algarve Cup, is also trying out for the Fury.
“I think it’s great,” Kiss says. “A lot of people have wanted this for a long time. I’m looking forward to constant high competition.”
If joining the W-League isn’t exciting enough, Ottawa’s top stars may actually have a chance to make a living playing the game.
Traditionally only the top players in the W-League have been paid. But a new, eight-team women’s pro soccer league set to kick off in the United States in April 2001 may change that.
If all goes according to plan, the WUSA will effectively make the existing W-League a farm league from which it will draw players. Each team can carry as many as three international players.
For now, though, Nera says playing in the W-League is plenty for female soccer players in Ottawa to be excited about.