History
The club was founded in 1989 as a registered not-for-profit society with the aim of providing a level of senior soccer not previously available in Kelowna.
The team competes in the Pacific Coast Soccer League. In the club’s first twenty years we are proud of several achievements – finalists in the 1995 play-offs, league champions and play-off winners in 1997 and 1998, finalists 2004 play-offs and semi-finalists in 2005. In its twentieth year the Challenge won the regular 2009 PCSL season title, the post-season title and the John F. Kennedy Cup. The Kennedy Cup is a tournament between the best British Columbia, Oregon and Washington State men's teams. In 1998 the Challenge was chosen as Kelowna’s Athletic Team of the Year, and runner-up in 2010 at the Kelowna Civic Awards.
The club has been involved in summer soccer camps for many hundreds of youth players almost every year since 1992.
Well-known players and coaches of the team have included Ian Bridge, Shaun Lowther, Pat Onstad and Rob Friend, who have all been Canadian National Soccer Team members.
The team usually comprises ten to fifteen local players augmented by four to seven players from out of town.
The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior hockey in Canada, alongside the Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. Teams play for the Ed Chynoweth Cup, with the winner moving on to play for the Memorial Cup, Canada's national junior championship. WHL teams have won the Memorial Cup 19 times. The WHL is composed of 22 teams divided into two conferences of two divisions. The Eastern Conference comprises 11 teams from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, while the Western Conference comprises eleven teams from British Columbia and the American states of Washington and Oregon.
The British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) is an independent Canadian Junior ice hockey league with 21 teams in British Columbia and Alberta. It was classified as a Junior "A" league, the second tier for junior hockey within the Hockey Canada framework, until it became independent in 2023. Since becoming independent, the league characterizes itself simply as a Junior ice hockey league.
The Pacific Coast Soccer League is an amateur soccer league, currently featuring teams from British Columbia. In the past, clubs from Washington and Oregon have competed.
Crossfire Redmond, previously the Seattle Wolves and Washington Crossfire, is an American soccer organization based in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 2009, the team plays in the National Premier Soccer League, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, and was formerly in the Premier Development League (PDL) through the 2016 season.
Nuneaton Griff F.C. are a football club based in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. They joined the Midland Football Combination Premier Division in 1999, and have been competing in the Midland League Division One since it was formed in 2014.
This is a timeline of events throughout the history of the Western Hockey League (WHL), which dates back to its founding in 1966. The league was founded by a group of team owners and managers in Saskatchewan and Alberta, including Bill Hunter, Scotty Munro, Del Wilson, and Jim Piggott, who thought a larger western league would help western teams compete for the Memorial Cup against teams from the larger associations in Ontario and Quebec. Since the league's founding, it has expanded to include 22 teams across the four Western Canadian provinces along with the Northwest United States, and it has produced 19 Memorial Cup championship teams.
The Ed Chynoweth Cup is an ice hockey club championship trophy awarded to the playoff champion of the Western Hockey League (WHL). Originally called the President's Cup when the league was founded in 1966, the trophy was renamed in 2007 to honour Ed Chynoweth's long service to junior ice hockey in Canada. The WHL champion earns a berth into the Memorial Cup tournament, Canada's major junior hockey championship. The Kamloops Blazers have won the most WHL championships with six, followed by the Medicine Hat Tigers with five. The Spokane Chiefs were the first team to win the renamed trophy in the 2007–08 WHL season. The current (2023–24) holders of the Ed Chynoweth Cup are the Moose Jaw Warriors.
David Stothard is a former Canadian soccer player. He was a two-time national champion with Westminster Royals FC. He was Canada's starting fullback during FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in 1957 and Canada's tour of the Soviet Union and Britain in 1960. In 2006 he became an honoured member of the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame.
Gogie Stewart was a multi-sport athlete from British Columbia, notably a former Canadian soccer player and lacrosse player. He was a three-time national soccer champion with Canadian clubs Vancouver City FC (1950) and Westminster Royals FC as well as a two-time national lacrosse champion with Vancouver Burrards (1949) and Nanaimo Timbermen (1956). He was one of Canada's starting inside forwards during FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in 1957. After his retirement, he became an honoured member of the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame.
Victoria United is a Canadian soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. With lineage to clubs founded in 1904, the team plays in the Pacific Coast Soccer League (PCSL), a provincial amateur league featuring teams from British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
Power Dynamos is a Zambian professional football club based in Kitwe that plays in the MTN/FAZ Super Division. They play their home games at Arthur Davies Stadium in Kitwe.
Surrey United Soccer Club is a Canadian amateur soccer club based in Cloverdale area in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. The club was founded in 1968. The senior men's team goes by the name Surrey United Firefighters and plays in the Fraser Valley Soccer League.
Arthur Hughes was a Canadian soccer player. He was a two-time national champion with Canadian clubs Vancouver Hale-Co FC (1956) and Vancouver Firefighters FC (1965). He was also Canada's starting centre-forward during the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in 1957. In the Pacific Coast League, Hughes won seven championships with three different teams from 1954–55 to 1965–66. He won five titles with Firefighters, one with Hale-Co FC (1958), and one with Westminster Royals FC (1959). He was a British Columbia or Mainland All-Star in 11 seasons from 1951 to 1965. Along with winning two Dominion titles, he won three runner-up medals with Vancouver St. Andrews (1951), Westminster (1959), and Firefighters (1961). He was an honored member of the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame.
Columbus FC is a Canadian soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia currently playing in the Premier division of the Vancouver Metro Soccer League. In 2013, the club was recognized as a Canada Soccer Hall of Fame Organization of Distinction.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC U-23, formerly known as Whitecaps FC Reserves, was a Canadian soccer team based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Although founded in 2005 as part of the development system for the Vancouver Whitecaps USL First Division franchise, beginning in 2011 they became part of the development system for Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps FC. The team played in the Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference.
Victoria Highlanders FC is a Canadian soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The club was founded in 2008.
The Westminster Royals were a Canadian soccer club based in New Westminster, British Columbia. It has the distinction of winning Canada Soccer's The Challenge Trophy nine times, setting the existing record for most domestic cup championships by a team in Canada. Originally known as Westminster United in 1912, they were Canada's dominant team for close to a decade from when they were known as the Westminster Royals in the 1920s and 1930s. They were later known as New Westminster Royals FC when they rejoined the Pacific Coast League in 1948–49.
Victoria Highlanders FC is a Canadian women's soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia.
The Pacific Coast Soccer League was an amateur and briefly semi-professional soccer league in Canada. The league had several incarnations from 1908 to 1973 before it merged with the Mainland Senior Soccer League and the Intercity Junior League after the 1972–73 season to form the British Columbia Senior Soccer League. While the league predominantly featured teams from Vancouver's mainland and Vancouver Island, it also featured a team from Seattle, United States for two years.
