A Message From The Club President

Hello Bowen Island Soccer Community,

On April 15th I was elected by our Board as the new club President of BIFC, so I wanted to reach out to you all and let you know how excited I am to be in this role; and what an honour it is to follow in the footsteps of the many people who have made the Club what it is today. I've been with the club for five years now, playing adult soccer, coaching the U9 Girls and volunteering on the Board for the past two years, and i'm constantly blown away by how great this community is.

Firstly I'd like to offer a massive thank you to Niul Bird, our previous Club President. Niul has been an incredible servant of the club with an unbelievable commitment to first stabilizing us after a challenging pandemic and then growing the club and ensuring that we always do the right thing and put the local community first. Under Niul's leadership we have grown considerably, tightened up processes and secured our longterm future. There's so much behind the scenes that Niul has done when volunteering his time and we've been lucky to have him in his role. I'm especially grateful that he has decided to stay on as Club Secretary which will be a big help in maintaining continuity into this new year.

This is an incredibly exciting time for the Club. We may never again see such an opportunity to generate interest in soccer on Bowen Island, with the once in a lifetime opportunity of a local Men's World Cup coming up fast this summer, and our 20th Anniversary approaching next year. I'm excited by the prospect that both of these events offer to bringing the community together around our sport, giving us the chance to honour our past while looking ahead to a vibrant future. Throughout the next 18 months you'll see us host multiple events such as viewing parties and celebrations of soccer and we'd love for you to come with us and have you join us for these events, so please follow our social media and email newsletters and keep an eye out for updates in the near future.

At the heart of everything we do will be continuing to provide quality soccer programs for people of all ages and abilities. This is the heartbeat of BIFC. From our U5 Mini House right up to our Fifty Plus program, we want there to be an accessible way in to playing soccer for absolutely everybody. It really doesn't matter if you've never kicked a ball before, it's our goal to ensure that there's a place for you to experience the social and health benefits of being part of a local soccer team.

I can't wait to work more with Anita, our General Manager and Oscar our Technical Director. Over the past couple of years I've had the pleasure of working closely with Anita on various projects such as our new kits, our recent rebrand and various successful events. Anita is genuinely brilliant at what she does and a force for good at this club, we're incredibly lucky to have her. Oscar too is an absolutely great addition to the club following his appointment last year. He's instantly stepped into his role as TD forging strong relationships across the club and helping young players to fall in love with the sport thanks to his welcoming personality, knowledge of soccer and commitment to engaging practices. We're so lucky to have both Anita and Oscar at the club, pass them your thanks if you see them!

We have a very strong board going into this year, and we've already started to see what we can get done together, Boris, returning as our Treasurer, Binny, Gillian, Lauren, Lisa, Rebecca, Ryan and Susan are all bringing a range of views and backgrounds but coming together with a shared goal of making this football club the best it can be, I can't wait to get things moving with them. We'll be there to support our fantastic volunteer coaches and managers, they're our heartbeat, and without them we wouldn't be able to do what we do.

I've personally been lucky enough to fall in love with football (you're going to have to get used to me calling it that), at a young age. And it has meant that wherever I've ended up the first things I've done was to sign up for a local team, and to join the local Liverpool Supporters Club. It's led to me meeting wonderful new people quickly, and Bowen Island was no different. It's also given me a career where I've been lucky enough to combine my two passions of football and video making. In my day job I lead the creation of all of the TV commercials and marketing for EA SPORTS FC, so I'm well aware of what a force for good BIFC can be for our young players, both now and in their futures.

I want us all to set lofty expectations and ambitions for Bowen Island Football Club. We should be setting out to be the best version of ourselves with an aim to be the greatest small football club in Canada. The view of the mountains from the field alone sets us apart from most, but its our people and our community that will make us great and continue the fine traditions of everybody who has played a part building the club before us.

I hope you'll come with us on this journey, to throw yourselves into the opportunities that we'll strive to create and to bring positivity into everything we do. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any ideas or would like to get more involved, we're here to make big things happen. Thanks again for the confidence in me, I hope to see you all out on the pitch.

Andy Gillooley

Bowen Island Club President