2007 National Champions Enter Hall of Fame
National champion Cape Breton Capers women's soccer team gets hall of fame nod.
SYDNEY, N.S. —
It was a cool Remembrance Day afternoon in 2007 and a day Cape Breton Capers soccer fans will never forget.
The CBU women's soccer team edged the York Lions 2-1 to capture the then Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship (now U SPORTS) in front of about 1,600 fans at Veterans Memorial Field in New Waterford, the one and only national title for women's soccer at the school.
That accomplishment will be recognized on Sept. 17 when the team will be inducted into the Capers Hall of Fame during the second annual President's Leadership Dinner.
"A lot of the girls on the team had played together growing up for a number of years," said striker and Capers co-captain Cheryl Wall of Westmount. She was one of 11 Cape Breton players on the roster. "We had a lot of great talent from away as well that meshed well with the team. I think we meshed so well on and off the field."
The Capers, hosts of the national tournament, finished the regular season with an 11-1-1 record and entered the CIS championship as Atlantic University Sport champions. In fact, CBU had claimed three out of the past four Atlantic University Sport banners.
But success didn't follow the team at the national stage. Up until the 2007 tournament, they had yet to win a quarter-final game at nationals.
Getting past that first hurdle, says Wall, was huge. The Capers defeated the Ottawa Gee-Gees 2-1 to advance.
"Once we got past that first game, we knew that was it for us. We were going to go all the way," she said. "There was that sense of knowing that this was our time."
Wall said from there, the team got extra superstitious to try and keep that winning magic going. They would keep the same routine, wash and wear the same clothes and do everything the same.
"One of the rituals was that Kiley Snow had petted this specific cat the day that we won," said Wall. "Then she did it the next day, too. On the day of the championship, she could not find this cat. There was a mad run to try and find this cat.
"There was a locker room freak-out. We were just like 'we need to find this cat! We need to get it!' Everything had to be the same. Eventually, we did."
In the semifinals, the Capers faced a huge task against the defending national champion and perennial powerhouse UBC Thunderbirds. In an upset, CBU blanked UBC 2-0 to advance to Sunday's championship game.
In the final against York, Capers striker Nicole Stewart found the back of the net for the first Capers goal at the 14-minute mark of the first half, and the home team went ahead 2-0 four minutes later on an own goal that was touched by CBU's Caitlin Shaw but went into the net off the foot of Lions midfielder Ashley DePalma.
AUS Championship
Semifinal
- Capers 1, UPEI 0
Final
- Capers 1, Dalhousie 0
CIS Championship
Quarter-final
- Capers 2, Gee-Gees 1
Semifinal
- Capers 2, Thunderbirds 0
Final
- Capers 2, Lions 1
Capers head coach Stephen (Ness) Timmons said he remembers trying to keep his side grounded at the half.
Ness Timmons
"We had to be careful to not get ahead of ourselves. There was still a lot of soccer to play," he said. "I do remember the girls were getting excited and I felt they were getting ahead of themselves that this really could happen. We were a bit — I'd say stern — at half time to say this is far from over, we had still a huge part to play in that second half."
Timmons was right. In the second half, York midfielder Nicole Burling cut the lead to one with only nine minutes play. But CBU held on for the victory as keeper Jessica MacDermid of North River made four saves in the victory.
Snow, a Sydney native, was named the tournament MVP. Both Snow and co-captain Kristina Weatherbie earned first team all-Canadian honours as well.
"I think the fact that so many of the girls were local and we were playing with the fans, I think that really lifted them," said Timmons. "I think that may have helped them for sure, playing in front of their loved ones and friends. I think that really inspired them.
"To beat three big teams at that time, the stars all aligned, everything went right and it had to, to win that tournament."
CBU athletic director John Ryan believes the 2007 title helped put Capers athletics on the map, especially being a small school.
"The program was trending in the right direction winning AUS championships before then, but it was just a perfect storm to have a chance to host it," he said. "It was a storybook (ending) to host it here and to win the first national championship for the program and the university at the CIS level was pretty exciting."
Wall, 34, lives in Halifax with her husband Kyle and their two kids, four-year-old Lily and three-year-old Liam — both of whom play soccer. She's worked at the National Research Council of Canada as a technical officer for the past five years.
"Everyone's really excited to get together and everyone's really honoured to be part of it," Wall said of the induction ceremony. "It's going to be a great night."