Wesmen soccer squad makes fundraising pitch

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/01/2025 (270 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE University of Winnipeg’s soccer team is making a last-minute play to convince decision-makers to reinstate the club via grassroots fundraising.

“If it’s strictly a financial decision, then give us an opportunity to help alleviate that financial burden,” said Jaida Clancy, a defender who was getting ready for her fourth year with the team when a year-long hiatus was announced last week.

Citing budget-related challenges, U of W administration is ending an English language program and suspending its lone soccer team for 2025.

Student-athletes have made multiple united appeals to save their sport.

The women initially requested the president and board of regents act on a moral obligation to support gender equality in sports. Since that pitch proved unsuccessful, they want to collect donations to keep the club intact.

“I don’t believe in the financial reasons because of the way the women’s soccer team has been treated over the last 10, 15 years. It’s completely different from the way they treat basketball and volleyball,” said Thiago Bastos, a former assistant coach at the university.

Bastos worked with the Wesmen women in 2022 and during his single season with them, he often took equipment from home — soccer balls, pinnies and cones — due to the limited resources for the program.

He said the cost of running the regular season, which takes place annually in September and October, was roughly $60,000 to $70,000, which is less than the last posted salaries for each of the head coaches of men’s basketball and volleyball.

U of W’s 2023 compensation disclosure report shows that both Mike Raimbault and Larry McKay, who retired from managing campus volleyball in 2024 following a three-decade career with the program, earned $98,009 annually.

Bastos was paid $2,000 for his supporting role on the soccer pitch. Shortly after the season, he left his day job at the Manitoba Soccer Association and Winnipeg, entirely.

“If you want to make a career of soccer, you have to leave (Manitoba). It’s sad because we’re talking about one of the biggest youth sports in Canada,” he said from Calgary on Tuesday.

Bastos noted the cuts at U of W are happening while Canada West recently shortened the women’s soccer season at the same time as the sport has grown among young players.

The former decision wasn’t entirely surprising, given there has been human resources-related uncertainty in the athletics department, he said, adding the women recently spent about six months without a coach.

“I absolutely would have never moved to Manitoba if it wasn’t for the soccer team,” said Clancy, 20.

The defender noted there’s irony in benching the team when Canada is about to launch a professional women’s league with coaches that will all but certainly scan rosters of post-secondary alumni for future recruits.

The Northern Super League kickoff is scheduled for April. There are six clubs: in Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto.

Multiple sources told the Free Press they suspect the suspension of the Winnipeg Wesmen 2025 season was made in part in retaliation to player concerns levelled against a former trainer that remain unresolved.

Interim head coach Fabio Capone has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

University spokesman Caleb Zimmerman said there was no one who could speak about the subject in an email Tuesday — the same line used previously by Cheryl Parisien, who was handling media relations on Jan. 14 when the news broke.

David Larkins, media co-ordinator for campus athletics, has repeatedly deferred comment to Danielle Dunbar, vice-president of university advancement.

Dunbar redirected a reporter’s inquiries to Zimmerman.

In an email to the soccer team on Friday, U of W president Todd Mondor said the decision was “extremely difficult” and emphasized the program has not been permanently cancelled.

“Unfortunately, the university has been required to take similar action over the years with respect to other sports programs including men’s baseball (2017), men’s and women’s wrestling (2017), men’s soccer (2016), and men’s ice hockey (1984),” Mondor said in his written response to a Thursday email appeal penned by players.

Not one of the teams he listed has been reinstated. The decision means only basketball and volleyball programs will operate in 2025-26.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca