Accessible Festival: Another Groundbreaker

2024 Continued to Be a Landmark Year for the Development of Accessible Soccer in Canada

Ontario Soccer continued their Circle K partnership with a series of 2v2
Festivals across the province. Generous sponsorship by the renowned American convenience store, each Circle K event celebrates youth soccer in a fun way with small sided games, branded t-shirts and pitch side decorations.

Soccability Canada approached Ontario Soccer in early 2024 with the proposal to
expand on their 2v2 offering to include an Accessible Festival program and Ontario Soccer staff immediately saw the benefit and impact of such a concept. To manage the first year of this new program three clubs were approached that had established accessible soccer programs, Vaughan Soccer Club, North Toronto Soccer Club and Pickering FC. Sadly North Toronto SC weren’t able to share in the event and Newmarket Soccer Club thankfully jumped in to complete the three day series.

Festival 1 at Vaughan Soccer Club sadly ended as a complete rain out with some
extreme weather conditions cancelling most soccer across the GTA that day. Festival 2 at Pickering FC was still 50/50 right up until kick-off as erratic weather continued to challenge schedulers. In total25 players with a range of needs attended the festival and while the fields were heavy and wet the kids had a blast. The day ended with the kids taking home grab bags including sunglasses, t-shirts and backpacks! A handful of Newmarket SC players had made it down to Pickering with Head Coach James Sewell and after friendships were built the Pickering FC groups committed to attend Newmarket’s event a month later.

Festival 3 at Newmarket SC was another great success. Many players enjoyedparticipating in the festival format which offers skills based activities and small-sided games as low as 2v2 and 3v3, but the real draw for the two clubs was some friendly competition where they really got to show their club pride.

This was another huge stake in the ground for Soccability Canada. The vision andsupport of Ontario Soccer and Circle K can not be understated and their commitment to football development rubber stamped the idea we had conceived.We can’t wait for 2025 Summer season to begin and open the door for any other club accessible programs to join our calendar of events. If you would like to be included, please contact inquiries@soccability.ca

Finally, Pickering FC will be hosting their 9th Winter Festival this season and offering an accessible format for the first time ever. Please contact Head Coach Jarod Tieche at allabilities@pickeringfc.ca if your group would like to attend.