Class of 2008

The Victoria Highlanders FC held their first ever player ID camp this past weekend at Royal Athletic Park, with more than 70 young footballers attending the two day evaluations under the watchful eyes of Head Coach Colin Miller and his staff. Although many of the participants were from the Island, there were also players from as far as Prince Edward Island to the east, Chile and the US. The camp was the first of series of evaluations for the PDL club that will start their inaugral season in the United Soccer League next spring.

"This was the first step in the process to identify players that can compete to the PDL standard", explained Coach Miller. "We intend to host further camps during the fall soccer season in other locations, but for this summer we are pleased with the quality of young athletes looking to further their football careers through the Highlanders club. Miller and assistant coaches Steve Simonson, Dante Zanatta, Bob Stankov and Shel Brodsgaard selected two pool teams to train over the next six weeks to prepare for the upcoming SUMMER SOCCER SERIES of exhibition friendlies and tournament play.

The first team pool will be bolstered by some veteran players from the Provincial Champions Gorge FC and Victoria United, Patrick Gawrys, Paul VandenBoomen and (VISL MVP) Rob Veenhoff. Other United players include Craig Robertson, Dan Kilpatrick, Joey Loreth, Matt Northrup and Robbie Heggelund. For a full listing of the 1st and Reserve teams invited to train with the club this summer, please see the SUMMER POOL TEAMS page on this site. The training schedule is posted on the Summer '08 Calendar on the right navigation.