The Vancouver Whitecaps FC women was a Canadian soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia that played in the USL W-League, the second tier of women's soccer in the United States and Canada. The team was formed in 2001 under the name Vancouver Breakers following a merger of the Vancouver Lady 86ers and Vancouver Angels. In 2003, they changed their name to the Whitecaps to match the men's team.
In 2000, the Vancouver Lady 86ers played an exhibition season over the summer along with three other new Pacific Northwest teams: Portland Rain, Spokane Chill and the Seattle Sounders Select Women, with the four teams planning to join the USL W-League for the 2001 season.[1]
In 2000, the Vancouver Angels were established to play in the Women's Premier Soccer League.[2][3] During the 2000 season, the Angels finished in fourth place in the eight team division.[4]
In 2001, David Stadnyk, the owner of the Angels, purchased the Vancouver 86ers and merged the Angels with the Lady 86ers under the name Vancouver Breakers, while renaming the male 86ers to their former name Vancouver Whitecaps[5] The team joined the USL W-League for the 2001 season.[6]
In their debut season, they finished first in the Western Conference advancing to the playoffs. In the semi-finals, the Breakers needed a 104th minute overtime golden goal from Andrea Neil to advance on a 1–0 win over the host Hampton Road Piranhas. After a two-and-a-half hour thunderstorm delay that resulted in the cancellation of the 3rd place game, the championship final was played at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex. When the skies cleared, despite a goal from Vancouver’s Tammy Crawford, the Breakers were defeated 5-1 by the Boston Renegades.[7]
In 2002, the Breakers had another strong season, losing only one match (in overtime) during the regular season. However, in the playoffs, they lost in the semi-finals to the Charlotte Lady Eagles on penalty kicks. After the 2002 season, following a complaint from the WUSA's Boston Breakers, the Whitecaps held a contest to determine a new club name.[8][9]
In 2003, both the men's and women's teams were purchased by Greg Kerfoot and the Breakers were renamed as the Whitecaps to consolidate the men's, women's, and youth teams under a single name.[10][11] The team won the 2004 and 2006 championships, and was runner-up in 2001 and 2010.[11] Vancouver played in the Western Conference against the Colorado Force, Colorado Rush, LA Strikers, Pali Blues, Santa Clarita Blue Heat, Seattle Sounders Women and Victoria Highlanders Women.
In 2010, the Whitecaps played their home games at Swangard Stadium in the city of Burnaby, British Columbia, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) east of Downtown Vancouver. In 2011, the women played each home game in a different city in British Columbia.[12] The team's colours were blue and white.
The club announced that it will not field a team for the 2013 USL W-League season. They stated it was because many of the best players in Canada are going to play in the National Women's Soccer League, involving the United States Soccer Federation, Canadian Soccer Association, and Mexican Football Federation.[13] The Whitecaps continued fielding an under-18 team, their girls elite program, in the 2013 Pacific Coast Soccer League.
In 2019, several former Whitecaps Women players published allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct from coaches at the club.[14] The claims centered around behaviour by head coach Bob Birarda, who was fired in 2008 after an internal investigation, and Hubert Busby Jr., who coached the team from 2011 to 2012.[15] Several supporters groups for the men's team organized protests and walk-outs during matches in April and May 2019 in support of an independent investigation into the allegations.[16][17] At one protest in May, they were joined by visiting Portland Timbers fans.[18]
In late 2021, MLS announced an independent investigation and review into the conduct of both coaches as well as the Whitecaps organization.[15][19] The investigation found that the Whitecaps' response "was appropriate" and "adhered to all of the [internal] investigator's recommendations".[19][20] A parallel investigation into Canada Soccer's actions found that the allegations of Birarda's behaviour with the under-20 team were "mishandled" by CSA.[21]
In 2015, in collarboration with BC Soccer and the Canadian Soccer Association, the Whitecaps launched the first Women's Regional EXCEL Centre (REX) in Western Canada, for top Canadian women soccer prospects.[22]
In December of 2022, it was announced that the Vancouver Whitecaps would be an inaugural member of the planned Northern Super League (then known as Project 8), a proposed fully-professional women's soccer league in Canada. They are scheduled to start play in 2025 alongside five other clubs under a new identity known as Vancouver Rise FC.
| Head coaches | ||
|---|---|---|
| Years | Name | Ref |
| 2001–2003 | David Dew | [23] |
| 2004–2005 | Chris Bennett | [24] |
| 2005 | Patrick Rohla | [25] |
| 2006-2008 | Bob Birarda | [26] |
| 2009 | Alan Koch | [27] |
| 2010–2011 | Hubert Busby, Jr. | [28] |
| 2012 | Jesse Symons | [29] |
| Season | League | Record | Rank | Playoffs | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| As Vancouver Breakers | |||||
| 2001 | USL W-League | 12–1–1 | 1st, West | Runners-Up | [30] |
| 2002 | 11–0–1 | 1st, West | 3rd | ||
| As Vancouver Whitecaps Women | |||||
| 2003 | USL W-League | 10–1–1 | 1st, West | Quarter-finals | [30] |
| 2004 | 13–1–0 | 1st, West | Champions | ||
| 2005 | 13–0–1 | 1st, West | 3rd | ||
| 2006 | 11–1–0 | 1st, West | Champions | ||
| 2007 | 6–3–3 | 3rd, West | did not qualify | ||
| 2008 | 7–3–2 | 2nd, West | Quarter-finals | ||
| 2009 | 2–4–6 | 5th | did not qualify | ||
| 2010 | 6–4–0 | 1st, West | Runners-Up | ||
| 2011 | 8–4–2 | 2nd, West | 3rd | ||
| 2012 | 3–6–5 | 6th, West | did not qualify | ||
| Year | Name | Goals | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Diana Artuso | 10 | [31] |
| 2002 | Christine Sinclair | 7 | [32] |
| 2003 | Phebe Trotman | 13 | [33] |
| 2004 | Martina Franko | 19 | [34] |
| 2005 | Amber Allen | 16 | [35] |
| 2006 | Christine Sinclair | 12 | [36] |
| 2007 | Tiffany Milbrett | 11 | [37] |
| 2008 | Tiffany Milbrett | 5 | [38] |
| 2009 | Jodi Ann Robinson | 7 | [39] |
| 2010 | Melissa Tancredi | 6 | [40] |
| 2011 | Sydney Leroux | 12 | [41] |
| 2012 | Mele French | 5 | [42] |
