David Lawes noted that today is a banner day for soccer from club to country. Fans can follow Canada playing Trinidad and Tobago in the CONCACAF play-in game for Copa America followed by Vic West meeting Comox Valley United in the VISL Jackson Cup championship game at 5:30 p.m. at Starlight Stadium.
“It is a big day for soccer with a lot of buzz about our sport on many levels,” said Lawes, president of the Vic West Soccer Club.
A big part of that locally is because of Lawes’ club. Not only is Vic West in the VISL top-tier Jackson Cup for the second consecutive year but the Vic West Division 3 team will play the Vic West Div. 4 squad in the preceding VISL George Pearkes Challenge Cup final at Starlight Stadium.
“We’ve already won the Challenge Cup,” Lawes quipped.
It’s the Jackson Cup, the VISL version of the FA Cup contested since 1915, that draws most of the attention. Vic West ended a 34-year drought last year when it won the Jackson Cup for the first time since 1989.
Vic West, the oldest soccer club in Canada at 127 years old, won its 23rd Jackson Cup but its first since the Berlin Wall was still standing. It culminated a painstaking climb back from the brink for a club that won six B.C. and four Canadian championships in the 1970s and 1980s only to have its first team fall to the depths in Div. 4, having to win three promotions since 2009 just to get back to the top-tier Div. 1.
This season, Vic West added its first Garrison Cup title, for the VISL Div. 1 regular-season championship, since 1989 by going undefeated at 16-0-2. Vic West also won the Cup Winners Cup by defeating 2023 Garrison Cup champion Lakehill. A victory today in the Jackson Cup would represent the treble for the Wests. But they want the quad by also taking the Province Cup B.C. championship for the first time since 1984, when Boy George was singing Karma Chameleon on the radio and the original Ghostbusters was playing in movie theatres.
“Absolutely, that is our goal and we will go into the Province Cup as the top Island seed because of winning the Garrison Cup,” said Lawes.
A bonus is the 2024 Province Cup final will be hosted next month at Starlight Stadium. But first things first at Starlight and that’s today’s Jackson Cup final against the upstarts from the Comox Valley, making their first Jackson Cup championship game appearance.
Comox Valley United was the seventh seed and 6-10-2 in wins-losses-draws in the VISL regular season before a breathless run through the Jackson Cup tournament, including a shock victory over second-seed Gorge FC (15-2-1 in the regular season) in a semifinal that went into extra time before being decided on penalties.
“It’s not the team we expected to be playing but it’s how the Cup rolls,” said Lawes.
“You see these sorts of upsets in the FA Cup as well. It’s great to see a finalist from the north of the Island and Comox Valley has great support with a bus load of fans coming down.”
Comox Valley United will be looking to blunt Vic West’s high-octane offence with former UVic Vikes forward Ian Whibley winning the VISL Div. 1 Golden Boot with 31 regular-season goals followed by teammate and Golden Boot runner-up Salem Almardy with 24. Matthew Dooling led Comox Valley with five goals.
“Ian [Whibley] has had an unbelievable season and is so strong with the ball,” said Lawes. “He is faster when dribbling.”
The VISL finals begin today at 10 a.m. with Nanaimo United playing Gorge FC in the George Smith Cup U-21 final, the Vic West Div. 3-4 teams kicking off in the Challenge Cup final at 12:30 p.m., Lakehill and Prospect Lake meeting for the Tony Grover Masters Cup at 2:30 p.m. followed by the Jackson Cup final at 5:30 between the Wests and Comox Valley.
