Chilliwack Youth Soccer re-invents itself

By Eric Welsh - Chilliwack Progress - April 24, 2008

NewS.39.20080424173525.NewCFCLogo_20080425.jpg

The Chilliwack Youth Soccer Association is no more.

The organization has officially unveiled a new name and a new logo, re-christening itself the Chilliwack Football Club as it continues to evolve into a ‘cradle to the grave’ club.

That is the descriptive phrase CFC chairperson Andrea Laycock used Wednesday morning as she discussed the meaning behind the makeover.

The catalyst was the addition of men’s and women’s U-21 teams that start play this summer in the Pacific Coast Soccer League.

“Ian (CFC head coach Knight) and I were talking about those teams and we came to the conclusion that we weren’t really a youth club anymore,” Laycock explained. “We’re now offering adults the opportunity to play under our umbrella. So that’s where the idea originated, and it slowly evolved from there. This is the first major step towards fulfilling the vision of a cradle to grave club.”

Simply switching names and logos doesn’t sound like it would be a daunting task, but it has, in fact, taken nearly a year to get all the ducks in a row.

Laycock and Knight had their initial conversation in July of last year, so it has taken 10 months to reach this point.

“It’s not just a matter of changing the name and logo,” Laycock said. “There’s a lot that goes along with it. We’ve had to change the website and change all the internal e-mail addresses. That’s probably the biggest thing. We wanted to keep the club colours of blue, red and white but we had to figure out the transition with our equipment (jerseys, etc.) It was a surprisingly huge process that was overwhelming at times.”

Key in the overall transition is the message to the public. The CFC executive was very concerned that there would be confusion — people incorrectly assuming there was a second soccer organization coming to Chilliwack.

Laycock hopes the carefully coordinated launch of the new name and logo, going first through parents and players and then through the media, will help ward off any misconceptions.

While ‘Youth’ has been dropped from the organization’s name, Laycock also wants the public to know CFC’s mandate remains exactly the same as it was before.

“We don’t want people to look at this and think the club is only for elite players,’ she said. “Our philosophy hasn’t changed at all. Our new tag line is ‘Play the World’s Game,’ and we want everyone to be able to do that. We have a lot to offer to players at every skill level, and we just want people to take advantage of that.”

CFC head coach Ian Knight has been at the forefront of several initiatives, recently, reaching separate player development arrangements with European professional clubs Royal RFC Racing (Belgium) and the Boulton Wanders (English Premier).

These additions may soon help Chilliwack to produce some elite-level talent, but Knight agreed with Laycock’s assertion that the primary goal remains the same as it always has.

“We run a program of quality and we want everyone to gain from our offerings regardless of their level of play,” he said. “The push for this was because we added the U-21 teams, but the focus of our operation remains youth and developing that youth. Our number one priority is to give kids a good time playing the sport and develop them as best as we can.”

Knight noted with satisfaction the use of the word ‘Club’ in the new title as an improvement over the previous use of ‘Association.’

“What we’re trying to do is give everyone a greater sense of belonging,” he said. “Association is a very wide-ranging term, whereas Club denotes more of a community feel. That’s what we’ve been wanting to do.”

And as a soccer purist, Knight admitted to being personally happy to see ‘Soccer’ punted from the organization’s name.

“All the newest professional franchises are all going with the FC tag,” he noted. “Only North America refers to it as soccer, so I’m pleased to see the name reflect what I was brought up on. Football is the name of the game. It’s only soccer over here.”

So does CFC plateau at this point and let the name and logo change sink in, or does it move full speed ahead with new initiatives? In Knight’s opinion, if you’re not moving ahead you’re moving backwards.

“I don’t think there’s ever a time when you can sit back and rest on your laurels,” he said. “There are always new opportunities popping up and we’re always looking to improve. If you sit back and think the job’s done, you end up getting left behind. I don’t think that will happen here.”

The new website address for the organization is

Email | Print | Letter to Editor | Share on Facebook

Chilliwack Youth Soccer re-invents itself

Most read in your Region

Most read across BC