The club meets once a week at Georgia Avenue Elementary School in Harewood. It is co-ed, for kids and youth aged 5-14. (Nanaimo City FC / Luis Alexander)

Semiu Oyolola can see the positive impacts soccer has in Nanaimo.

“I'm gonna say when I heard about this academy,” Oyolola said. “I saw the culture, the goals of the academy, I was really impressed.”

As a former soccer player, or football player as he says, he knew the importance of kids being able to access sports.

“One thing about football is football teaches someone to be responsible, committed, disciplined, because it's a team game.” he said. “Tolerance, adaptability; it's very good for them. It builds you for the future, you face challenges, football prepares you for the future challenges in life.”

When he saw that the newly formed Nanaimo City Football Club was needing a volunteer coach, he jumped at the chance.

“They are the future of tomorrow,” he said. “I could see the interest, the joy, the happiness, and I felt I needed to be part of this culture, part of this future of tomorrow.”

Having soccer be accessible and welcoming is the heart of the Nanaimo City Football Club, said Kailen Olson, club president and founder.

“We started the club because I think we saw a need for access for people that kids and families that couldn't afford fees,” Olson said. “There were so many barriers for folks who were new to the community.”

The club meets once a week at Georgia Avenue Elementary School in Harewood. It is co-ed, for kids and youth aged 5-14.

“I'm from Harewood myself originally. My dad worked in the mill. He was a single father who raised me, so it was just always kind of a bit of a struggle to find a place to play organized sports,” Olson said. “So what I wanted to do was just to create access for people to come and play, and not have limitations; transportation, language, finances be a barrier to having them come and build community and just be together.”

All coaches and staff help out on a volunteer basis. The non profit club was first incorporated in December 2024 and started offering soccer training in spring 2025, initially with only 20 kids.

Youths who are part of the club. (Nanaimo City FC / Luis Alexander)

Now after partnering with Tillicum Lelum Aboriginal Friendship Centre and the Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society, they’ve seen over 160 registrations. They see an average of more than 80 kids come out each week.

Olson said many of the kids joined the club through the two partnerships.

“What we realized was that we wanted to be sustainable, and that wasn't going to be possible,” Olson said. “So we had to land on sort of a nominal fee of $25 annually, and then $40 for an eight week session.”

All money they receive through membership fees and grant funding is invested in the club to pay for equipment and a club shirt for each kid. Any money left remaining goes towards the club's scholarship program that covers membership and session fees.

Currently 27 kids are able to participate at no cost through club scholarships.

Nanaimo City FC also runs a program where people can donate to sponsor a player.

Olson said with a lot of kids coming from different backgrounds and countries, this club gives space to allow both kids and their parents or guardians to form a community.

Kids doing drills. (Nanaimo City FC / Luis Alexander)

“It's become a hub where folks that maybe don't know necessarily how to get included or how to find access to building community within Nanaimo,” he said. “This has become a space where they can go and say, ‘hey, I'm making new friends. I'm building with people from different nations, different cultures, different ethno-backgrounds.’”

Oslon said nine different nationalities are represented in the club.

He said Nanaimo City FC is also committed to reconciliation.

“The beginning of the club was really wanting to understand reconciliation and what the essence of reconciliation is,” Olson said. “I wanted to have a space where people could build friendships, could learn how to respect each other, could learn to honour differences and realize that we're all the same.”

After a pilot season last spring, the club is in the middle of their first official eight week academy for kids to learn and practice soccer skills and technique.

Oyolola has been coaching for the club for seven months.

“I enjoy it. I love it,” Oyolola said. “Supporting the youth, especially making them active, having fun, and seeing them becoming future stars like Massey, Ronaldo. They all started this way.”

He said he can see potential in many of the kids he coaches.

“I've really discovered good players that in the years to come, if they continue this way, with the support of the parents, with the support of the community, the government, I believe one of them or two, even more, are gonna represent Canada,” he said. “Believe me.”

Oyolola’s two sons, 11 year old Faiz and six year old Akoam play soccer at the club.

Akoam shares his favourite part of the club:

“The balls! Cool balls!”

His brother Faiz said has made a lot of friends since joining the Nanaimo City Football Club. His favorite part of playing at the club:

“Scoring and assisting.”

Faiz said he enjoys having his dad as a coach and tries to practice with him whenever possible.

“I practice like once a week, and because my dad isn't at home much, but when he's at home, we usually practice together,” Faiz said.

With the passion of the beautiful game coursing through the veins of Harewood, club founder Oslon said there is no stopping now.

“There's a passion for football. There's a passion for being a part of a club. I don't know that we really understand that in Nanaimo necessarily, but when you're coming from Europe and other places in Africa, people get behind their club, and that was what I wanted to bring to Harewood,” Oslon said. “That there's a passion for this neighbourhood. We belong here. This is our home, and when we come out, we're supporting our kids. This is our opportunity to really support our community and get behind it.”

More information about the Nanaimo City Football Club can be found on their website at nanaimocityfc.com.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.

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