By Jason Pike.
Year after year, it becomes increasingly obvious that provincial teams representing Newfoundland and Labrador—particularly under the Newfoundland and Labrador Soccer Association (NLSA)—are not putting forward the best possible product. And perhaps they never will, at least not under the current system.
Because let’s be honest: the teams selected to represent our province in soccer don’t truly represent the province at all. If anything, the organization might as well be renamed the Avalon Peninsula Soccer Association, because if you’re not from St. John’s or its immediate surroundings, your chances of making a provincial team are slim to none.
This isn’t just a theory—it’s a fact. Just ask anyone from the West Coast, the Burin Peninsula, or Central Newfoundland. Their athletes are routinely overlooked, or forced to travel ridiculous distances for every practice, only to be told there’s no room for them. One striking example is Brett Coish of Deer Lake, a young player with limitless potential who was essentially told he didn’t have a place—because he lived on the wrong side of the island.
It’s hard to ignore how many players on provincial rosters come from the same select few clubs. Take the Canada Games team, for example—13 players from the Fieldians program, and coached by two Fieldians coaches. That’s not a provincial team. That’s a club team in disguise.
And what about the Burin Peninsula players on the U15 roster? Oh wait—there weren’t any. Not because they weren’t good enough, but because the NLSA refused to hold a single practice outside the greater St. John’s area. So, those players opted out entirely. Who can blame them?
What makes this worse is that the Burin Peninsula still boasts clubs in Grand Bank, Marystown, Burin, and Saint Lawrence—the last of which is still a name that echoes through Newfoundland soccer history. Up until the late ’90s and early 2000s, the region was considered a soccer powerhouse—the go-to for talent in this province. And now? They’ve been completely ignored by the provincial program. This isn’t an oversight anymore. It’s systemic rural exclusion.
Yes, the Avalon Peninsula has a larger population base and bigger pool to choose from. But this isn’t a team for St. John’s. This is a team for Newfoundland and Labrador. Practices should be held somewhere central—Gander, Clarenville, anywhere more accessible to everyone across the province. If the current system only works for the east coast, then it’s not a provincial program. It’s exclusion by design.
And it gets worse.
This year, as the host of the Canada Games, the NLSA made young athletes sign exclusive contracts—forcing them to choose soccer over other sports. In a province like ours, where top athletes often play multiple sports at a high level, this is deeply short-sighted. One girl, a starter on the Canada Games basketball team, chose soccer instead. She signed the contract. She committed.
And then? She was cut.
Why? Because she didn’t hit the 80% attendance requirement—despite working a job, maintaining grades, and committing two full years of her life to the program. That’s it. She lost both her opportunities. Soccer cut her, and the basketball team had already moved on.
That’s not just heartbreaking. That’s unforgivable.
There’s a systemic problem from the top all the way to the bottom of the NLSA. Until the organization’s policies are restructured—by people who actually care about growing the sport province-wide, and not just protecting their own programs and players—nothing will change. And as long as this persists, Newfoundland and Labrador will never be represented by its best.
When I hear that our province is being represented at a national level—whether it’s soccer, basketball, tiddlywinks, or cornhole—I want us to win. I want to be proud of the team wearing our colors.
But politics and favouritism have crippled our ability to do that. And until that mess gets cleaned up, I fear they always will.
