This City
The Vancouver Whitecaps are the only professional soccer club in Canada that has invested in women’s soccer. Period. After what can only be considered a tumultuous start to their women’s program, they doubled down in 2015 and invested in a world-class girl’s program. Since then, the club has consistently developed some of the top girls players in Canada, including high profile stars like Julia Grosso, Jordyn Huitema and Jayde Riviere. In addition to their role in player development, the club has also seen a host of talented female coaches lead their young female players, such as Rhian Wilkinson, Amy Harrison, Chelsey Hannesson, Jasmine Mander, and now Katie Collar.
“Partnered with BC Soccer, the Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite Academy is an official Canada Soccer National Development Centre (NDC), welcoming top women's soccer prospects from across Western Canada to attend school, train, and play together daily in Burnaby, BC.”
1 on 1 with Emma Humphries
-
Whitecaps FC invests more than any other club in Canada on youth development. True best with best programs alongside Nationally aligned curriculum in our NDC centres, with an aim to prepare our best players for both our youth and Senior national teams.
-
Keep progressing our new centres outside of Vancouver to increase our scouting base for players.
Give our players the best football education to be set up for success with the YNT.
-
Our NDC is selected from the best U18 players in Western Canada. Players are scouted through the Regional Excel programs in each province and then tested to be brought into our best with best playing environment.
-
League1 BC is a great opportunity for our best young talent to be tested against older female opponents. It’s important for our NDC to play meaningful competition and compete to try to apply the way we play when points are on the line.
The best outcome is for us to see which players can cope at this level and for many of them help to prepare for their upcoming u17 World Cup.
-
Whitecaps FC have always invested in the future of the Womens game. The club takes great pride in seeing the next generation come through the program.
-
The future is really bright. This program has had a hand in helping produce some of the current medalists. (Jordyn Huitema, Julia Grosso, Jayde Riviere). You could be coming out to see some players that in the near future may be given chances to break through to the Senior team - there is a lot of be excited about with this group and where they are heading. League1 is a great platform to see what the future will bring.
-
Professional pathways - girls still need to be able to look up and see what they want to be and not have to leave Canada to experience a professional career in the game. This is a great first step in the pathway towards professional women’s soccer in Canada. There is still lots of work to be done but high performance leagues are a necessity for the growth of the game.
About Emma
Emma Humphries is the Director of Women’s Football Development for the Whitecaps. She leads the advancement of women’s players and coaches from the Whitecaps Academy system, including partners clubs and associations across the country. The UEFA A-Licensed coach was previously an assistant with Liverpool of the FA Women’s Championship. She returns to the Whitecaps, previously serving as the girls director and head coach from 2014-2018. In addition, she represented New Zealand at the Senior and U-20 level.
We wish Emma the best of luck in achieving her organization’s goals this summer.
