Full name | Blue Devils Football Club | ||
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Founded | 2015 | ||
Stadium | Sheridan Trafalgar Stadium | ||
President | Steven Caldwell [1] | ||
Head coach |
Duncan Wilde (men) Carli Tingstad (women) | ||
League | League1 Ontario | ||
2023 | League, 4th; Playoffs, SF (men) League, 11th; Playoffs, DNQ (women) | ||
Website | Club website | ||
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Blue Devils Football Club (formerly known as Oakville Blue Devils FC) is a semi-professional soccer club based in Oakville, Ontario. The senior men's and women's teams currently compete in League1 Ontario men's and women's divisions. [2] [3]
The original Oakville Blue Devils was a member team of the Oakville Soccer Club. The team was built, coached and developed by Phil Iafrati (1947–2013), [4] where they won the U19 provincial and national championships in 1998. [5] As the Devils reached the end of the youth soccer circuit that season, Iafrati restarted the program with the a U9 program Oakville Blue Stars in 1999. [6]
In 2005, the second edition of the Blue Devils were formed when the Scarborough-based Metro Lions of the Canadian Professional Soccer League relocated to Oakville and adopted the Blue Devils name, [5] coached by Duncan Wilde. [7] They won the 2005 season defeating Vaughan Shooters in the final. [8] In 2006, Wilde left to manage the Toronto Lynx, which resulted in a mass exodus of players not returning. [9] The club was relocated in 2007 and became Brampton United, bringing to an end the period of the Oakville Blue Devils history. [4]
In 2015, the club was founded to play in the semi-professional League1 Ontario, named after the original team from prior years. [4] The Toronto Lynx men's senior team was incorporated into the Oakville team [10] and in late 2017, the teams merged completely under Oakville's umbrella. [11] In their inaugural L1O season, they were crowned league champions and qualified for the Inter-Provincial Cup against the champion of the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec to determine the Canadian Division III champion, where they defeated CS Mont-Royal Outremont to win the title. [12] In 2017, they won their second title, defeating Woodbridge Strikers in the Championship final on penalty kicks. [13]
In 2018, the team played in the Canadian Championship for the first time where they lost in the first qualifying round against 2017 PLSQ champion AS Blainville. [14] [15] [16] [17] Later, during the 2018 season, they played a friendly against Italian professional Serie A club Frosinone Calcio, losing by a score of 2–0. [18] [19] [20]
Also in 2018, the club added a team in the women's division of League1 Ontario, beginning in the 2018 season. [21] [22] In their second season, the women advanced to the Championship Final, where they were defeated by FC London. [23] In 2021, the women once again finished as runner-ups after being defeated in the finals by the Woodbridge Strikers. [23]
In 2020, the club merged with GPS Academy and was renamed to Blue Devils FC. [24] The men finished as runner-ups in both 2021 and 2022, being defeated in the Championship Finals by Guelph United FC and Vaughan Azzurri, respectively. [23]
Name | Position |
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Duncan Wilde | League1 head coach |
Billy Steele | U21 head coach and senior assistant coach |
Glenn McNamara | Goalkeeper coach |
Steven Caldwell | President |
Brett Mosen | Technical staff |
Kim Ashton | Operations manager |
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Season | League | Teams | Record | Rank | Playoffs | League Cup | Canadian Championship | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2015 | League1 Ontario | 12 | 17–2–3 | Champions | – | Group stage | – | [27] |
2016 | 16 | 8–4–10 | 6th, Western (10th overall) | did not qualify | First round | – | [27] | |
2017 | 16 | 18–2–2 | 1st, Western (1st overall) | Champions | First round | – | [27] | |
2018 | 17 | 10–5–1 | 3rd | Group stage | Semifinals | First qualifying round | [27] | |
2019 | 16 | 12–2–1 | 1st | Semifinals | – | Did not qualify | [27] | |
2020 | Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic [28] | |||||||
2021 | 15 | 9–2–1 | 2nd, West (3rd overall) | Finalists | – | Did not qualify | [27] | |
2022 | 22 | 14–5–2 | 2nd | Finalists | – | Did not qualify | ||
2023 | 21 | 12–3–5 | 4th | Semi-finals | – | Did not qualify |
Season | League | Teams | Record | Rank | Playoffs | League Cup | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | League1 Ontario | 13 | 7–1–4 | 5th | did not qualify | Round of 16 | [29] |
2019 | 14 | 11–0–2 | 1st | Finalists | – | [29] | |
2020 | Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic [28] | ||||||
2021 | 7 | 6–1–5 | 4th | Finalists | – | ||
2022 | 20 | 5–4–10 | 15th | Did not qualify | – | ||
2023 | 19 | 7–3–8 | 11th | Did not qualify | – |
The following players have either played at the professional or international level, either before or after playing for the League1 Ontario team: