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Scotia Soccer Club and Sackville United Soccer Association merged in February, 2018.

Scotia Soccer Club History  

The Suburban Soccer District recognized a growing concern of its membership to create teams that were competitive in the growing soccer community in Nova Scotia. A plan was visualized and in the fall of 1992 the concept of Scotia Olympics Soccer Club was formed.

The four clubs in Suburban had many competitive teams at the A level (later changed to Tier 1). Teams in Beaver Bank, Bedford, River Lake and Sackville soccer clubs were not as strong or competitive as the teams from the larger clubs. In order to compete at a more advanced level, the goal was to combine coaches and players from the four clubs in the Suburban Soccer District and form teams which would then work on becoming competitive with other clubs in the province. The concept of joining forces and talent would result in stronger teams and these teams would be the basis of a new club. The original clubs would still offer and support the mini and recreational programs although they would no longer have competitive teams.

In 1993, Suburban Soccer District agreed to adopt this new organizational structure and along with the four member clubs it was agreed to create a fifth club, Scotia Olympics Soccer Club, which became the tier 1 club for the District. The first year was not without growing pains and the first season went off to a rough start. 

The first Scotia teams consisted of a second division men's team coached by Manuel Escobar, an under 17 girls team coached by Jonathon Mathews, an under 15 girls team with John Keating and Dave Pentz as coaches, as well as an under 15 boys team with Brian Gardiner as coach. The teams were proudly sporting the new distinctive blue, red and white jerseys along with red shorts and blue socks.The senior men suggested the use of the Scotia name, as it was  similar to a team name which they played on in their youth.

Each season, Scotia would work closely with the four other clubs encouraging the best players to tryout for the competitive teams. This worked very well for a number of years and more players joined to give a full slate of teams which were becoming very competitive at the provincial level.   

After a few years, Scotia Olympics Soccer Club decided to add Tier 2A teams to support the Tier 1 program. The Tier 2A players would receive training along with the Tier 1 players and would have the ability to play up, when needed.This was a very attractive feature to the program. 

In the fall of 2000, because of the predicted demise of the Forest Hills Soccer Club in Dartmouth, three new teams were attracted to Scotia, along with a new part-time Technical Director, John Kehoe. Not only was John instrumental in bringing with him both new  teams in Senior A Women and Men, Jamie Sawler followed with the under 18 girls team. John's presence strengthened the Club, as he was well respected at the National and University level, while simultaneously continuing his coaching at Acadia University in Wolfville as the Head Coach for the men's soccer team. The following summer, Scotia Senior Women won Provincials and then in October brought home a silver medal from Nationals. It was the first year a Scotia team had represented Nova Scotia at the national level. In 2002 the team had a second chance at Nationals and brought home a bronze medal. John made the move from Acadia University to St. Mary's University in Halifax, making the switch from coaching men to women. Alan Jazic took over the Scotia Senior Men team and Jamie Sawler vacated his position leaving the under 18 girls team for John. John was then able to focus his attention on the two top level female teams in the Club while continuing his skills and training program for the remaining teams.John continued to coach the under 18 girls team (taking them to Nationals in 2007) and  Senior Women until he vacated his position in 2007.

After several years of success with Scotia Olympics Soccer Club, Sackville United Soccer Association, decided to pursue the option to have their own competitive teams, and to do this they felt they had to leave the Suburban District (which by then had changed its name to Scotia District).  Soccer Nova Scotia granted Sackville their own district which was separate and distinct from the remaining clubs in Scotia District. This decreased the ability for Scotia Soccer Club to automatically draw on the large player base from Sackville. But since Scotia still had a strong background in training and coaching, it continued to attract new players and was competitive in most age groups.

By 2002, Bedford Soccer Association had gained more qualified coaches and consequently had the ability to increase the numbers of tier 2A teams in the District.  But unlike Sackville, they saw a continued benefit to remain with the other clubs and saw no reason to leave the Scotia District.  The move to create additional tier 2A teams was considered to be an asset in the growth of the District. Bedford expressed no interest in the tier 1 system and continued to send their advanced players to Scotia's tryouts.

At the same time the Beaver Bank and River Lake Soccer Clubs were experiencing difficulty in obtaining volunteers for their executives and teams and expressed an interest in merging with Scotia Olympics. It was decided to investigate the possibility of a merger as there was much to gain in many facets.  In 2003, the merger became a reality and a new club, Scotia Soccer Club, was created. Scotia was now a full service club, offering programs in competitive, non-competitive and mini soccer.  At this point, there was much more involved in the administrative level of the Club than what a volunteer would be able to handle, and a part-time position was created. Diana Noel (who previously held the position unofficially for Scotia for many years) was successful in becoming Scotia Soccer Club's first Administrator.

In 2005, the Canadian Soccer Association ranked Scotia Soccer Club, 27 out of 303 clubs across Canada, and forth in the province. Making it one of the strongest and sought after clubs in the area.

In 2007, Scotia decided to create a position for a full time Technical Director. Mesut Mert, a past professional soccer player who played for both the Montreal Impact and the Calgary Mustangs, accepted the newly created position. 

Scotia has produced several strong athletes in soccer and other sports. Several of Scotia's players have participated in the National Training Centre.  Ante Jazic from Bedford, is Scotia's most notable alumni.  Ante is most recently playing for the Los Angeles Galaxy of the Major League Soccer. Nkem Ezurike from Lower Sackville has made an  impact on the province by being the first soccer player from Nova Scotia  to have made a goal at an international competition for Canada, as part of the under 17 National Team competing in New Zealand in 2008. James Sheppard, from Lower Sackville, spent his youth playing both soccer and hockey and made a choice in 2005 at the age of 17 that he was not returning to soccer (where he last played Under 16 Tier 1), but instead to focus and pursue his hockey career.  In 2006 James was 9^th place draft in the NHL and chosen to play for the Minnesota Twins and in 2011 traded to the San Jose Sharks. In 2015, Scotia alumnia, Sydney Kennedy, of Fletchers Lake was named to Canada's National Under 15 team.

As of 2008, Scotia Soccer Club had approximately 1300 players ranging from under 4 to senior levels and drew from its original area including Bedford, Waverley, Fall River, and all the nearby communities. Scotia now offers a wide range of programs for all ages, from entry level to competitive. Scotia is part of a larger region, which includes Bedford, Sackville and East Hants and continues to attract players from these areas who are interested in a high level of soccer.  Scotia offers additional soccer training at all levels, as well as a very strong and committed Prospects and Pre-Prospects program at the Under 8 to Under 12 level. The results show, and each year Scotia teams consistently win tournaments and Provincial soccer titles having in the near past consistently sending tier 1 teams to represent Nova Scotia at the national level. 

In 2009 there was a concern amongst the 4 clubs in the Region: Scotia Soccer Club, Bedford Soccer Association, Sackville United Soccer Association and East Hants Soccer Association, that in order to put their best players forward and compete at the highest level of teams in the province, they would have to unite together and form a new club.  In 2010 the new club was formed and called "Suburban FC,"  a name not unfamilar to the history of soccer in the region. Suburban FC would offer only Tier 1 and Premier Senior soccer teams, and would feed from the other four clubs. Scotia Soccer Club would become one of three clubs offering teams at the Tier 2, mini and Prospects/Pre-Prospects levels. The Prospects/Pre-Prospects program would prepare and train players to become the future Tier 1 players for Suburban FC. The creation of Suburban FC came 18 years after Scotia Olympics had been formed to take on a similar task. 
 

David Pentz & Verona Leslie, 2008
Revised 2012: Verona Leslie
Updated 2015: Verona Leslie
Revised 2017: Verona Leslie

Sackville United Soccer Club History