British Columbia honours soccer heroes

Eleven former players, coaches, referees and builders as well as two teams and two organisations have been honoured by the Soccer Hall of Fame of British Columbia. Former National Teams players Terry Felix, Wendy Hawthorne, George Pakos, Cathy Ross and Sergio Zanatta highlight BC Soccer’s Class of 2020 that was announced on Saturday 7 November.

Coaches Harry Christie, József Csabai and Shelley Howieson, referees Bob Allen and Dante Maglio, and builder Robert Adam were also featured in the Class of 2020. British Columbia Teams of Distinction were the men’s 1957 BC All-Stars and the women’s 2004-14 Surrey United SC provincial and national champions. British Columbia Organizations of Distinction were Cliff Avenue United and Nanaimo United.

The Soccer Hall of Fame of British Columbia was founded in 2019 to recognize and honour excellence by British Columbians in soccer, whose example brought great credit to our sport and province. The founding members were the 96 British Columbians already honoured by the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame before 2019. Starting this year, new members are added annually through nominations and the Selection Panel.

The five new honoured members in the Players category all played for Canada Soccer’s National Teams from 1967 to 1998, also winning two Concacaf titles and 10 Canadian titles.