Olympic champions Canada add new staff ahead of 2022 international season

Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team Head Coach Bev Priestman has added experienced coach Andy Spence to her technical staff ahead of the 2022 international season. Spence, a UEFA A Licence coach, will serve as Priestman’s Assistant Coach with the Women’s National Team.
 
Spence most recently served as the England Women’s U-19 and U-21 Assistant Coach and helped England reach the 2019 UEFA Women’s U19 European Championship. He previously served as Everton FC’s First Team Head Coach in the FA Women’s Super League and also briefly served as the England Women’s U-19 Acting Head Coach in 2020-21.
 
Spence is the latest hire by the Women’s National Team Program after the addition of a dynamic and experienced National Youth Teams staff was announced in September. That group features: Cindy Tye as the U-20 National Team Head Coach; Emma Humphries as the Women’s U-17 National Team Head Coach and REX Super Centre Director; and Jasmine Mander as both the Girls’ U-15 National Team Head Coach and Women’s U-17 National Team Assistant Coach (alongside her role as the Women’s National Team Performance Analyst); and  Joey Lombardi as the Ontario Super REX and Women’s U-20 Director.
 
Also announced ahead of the 2022 international season, Claire Eccles has been hired as Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team Equipment Manager. Eccles joins Canada Soccer’s staff with significant experience in High Performance sport both as an athlete and in other positions. Eccles has international experience as a left-handed pitcher with Baseball Canada’s Women’s National Team, notably winning a silver medal at the 2016 Baseball World Cup.
 
Eccles takes on part of the role served by long-serving Tour & Equipment Manager Maeve Glass, who worked recently worked her final international match in November. Glass worked 224 international matches for Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team from 2008 to 2021, helping Canada win the 2010 Concacaf Women’s Championship and then three-straight Olympic medals from Bronze at London 2012 and Rio 2016 to Gold at Japan 2020 this past summer.

CANADA SOCCER’S WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM
 
Canada are Olympic champions (Tokyo 2020), two-time bronze medal winners (2012 and 2016), and two-time Concacaf champions (1998 and 2010). In all, Canada have participated in seven consecutive editions of the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ (1995 to 2019) and four consecutive editions of the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament (2008 to 2021). At Tokyo 2020, Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team became the first Canadian team to win three consecutive medals at the Summer Olympic Games and just the third nation in the world to win three medals in women’s soccer.
 
Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Youth Teams, meanwhile, have won four Concacaf youth titles: the 2004 and 2008 Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship, the 2010 Concacaf Women’s Under-17 Championship, and the 2014 Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship. Canada have qualified for seven editions of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup (including a silver medal at Canada 2002) and all six editions of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup (including a fourth-place finish at Uruguay 2018).