'It's big for a club our size': Regina soccer club receives national license

Queen City United Soccer Club has joined a prestigious group of Canadian teams after receiving a National Youth Club License.

The designation recognizes the highest achieving organizations across Canada.

Queen City United is only the second club in Saskatchewan to receive the honour. Astra Academy in Saskatoon also received the designation this year.

“It’s big for a club our size. It shows that we are following the standards of Canada Soccer, which is our governing organization that we’ve put the time and investment into becoming an organization that is trying to constantly evolve and achieve its highest designation that’s available to us,” said Josh Hartl, technical director for Queen City United Soccer Club.

Queen City United Soccer Club was established in 1987 and it opened a new facility in 2015 when athletes, coaches, and parents wanted a space year round.

“We were looking for something further for training opportunities so we developed this building,” said Hugh Dooley, Executive Director for Queen City United Soccer Club.

“It gives us a place to train all of the time. We’re able to plan our programming on what meets client’s needs instead of having to adjust whenever we needed to find a spot to rent.”

For athletes like Tarin Ballan, a member of the U18 Girl’s Excellence Team, the facility being open twelve months of the year has helped her grow as an athlete.

“It is really important to have this here because we need somewhere to train all the time, especially through the winter. It has helped me athletically having this space always open for us and helped us come together and grow as a community,” said Ballan.

“It’s massive to have a home year round. It helps with our culture, our identity. Just to have a one base, I think it’s huge for our players and parents,” said Hartl.

Soccer is one of Canada’s fastest growing sports. When the club first opened its doors in 2015, they had about 160 players and have now grown to more than 450.

The country has seen a lot of success at the international recently. The women’s national team earned gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the men’s team just qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 36 years.

“You’re seeing it become more mainstream. You’re seeing the major television networks starting to pick up the games and to hear people talking about it is exciting,” said Hartl.