Edmonton Brickmen

The Edmonton Brickmen were an Edmonton, Alberta-based soccer club that competed in two now-defunct leagues: the Western Soccer Alliance and the Canadian Soccer League.

History

Starting in the Western Soccer Alliance, they were initially part of the 1985 Western Alliance Challenge Series where teams from the WSA played a set of matches against the Brickmen and the Canadian National team. Regarded as a successful Canadian soccer club, the Brickmen joined the Western Soccer Alliance in 1986.^[1]

Despite a poor performance in that same year, the attendance was reasonable (in ranging between 3000 to 4000 per game), but fancying better chances with the new start-up Canadian Soccer League, the Edmonton Brickmen left.

During their stay in both the Alliance and the CSL, the team used two different stadiums to host their games: John Ducey Park (now Telus Field) and Clarke Stadium for their matches. The choice of John Ducey Park was in part due to the sharing of costs with the Edmonton Trappers.

The Edmonton Brickmen roster included such notables as: ex-English star Justin Fashanu, Niall Thompson, Shel Brodsgaard (now national goalkeeping coach), and two then-young goalkeepers Craig Forrest and Paul Dolan.

The team was coached by Ross Ongaro (who also was involved as player). It was presided over by long-time Edmonton soccer participant, Joe Petrone (who served as director of player personnel for the Edmonton Brickmen from 1988 to 1990) and president Mel Kowalchuk with seed money provided by the Edmonton-based company, the Brick Warehouse.

References