Pickering FC
COVID-19 Update
April 24, 2020
Dear PFC Family,
 
I hope that you and your family are continuing to stay safe and positive. I’m sorry to share sad news with you this week that COVID-19 has hit close to home. Rae Coulter, a wonderful and popular member of our In-Motion program that we ran over the past two years, succumbed to the epidemic this week. Her obituary stated that “The family would like to thank the caring staff at Sunnycrest who were there for mom when we could not be because of COVID-19. In lieu of flowers, mom would like you to consider a donation to your local food bank”. As a Club we offer our sincere condolences to Rae’ family and will be making a donation in her memory.
 
We continue to see fantastic interaction with you through our social media campaign and regular webinars. We hope you’re #PFCProud of our efforts to bring you as much content as possible. This week we will focus entirely on the PLAYERS at the centre of our game, while maintaining our reference to the Pickering FC 5 key values.
 
To honour National Volunteer Week, we want to say a special thank you to over 200 Recreational Coaches, 40 Team Managers, 30 All Abilities Coaches and our PFC Board who volunteer countless hours each year to help support our programs and members.
 
Using our PFC 5 key values as a reference point here is this week’s update.
Community
  • Our All Abilities program again attracted players to an online interaction with Janel from Axxon Music Therapy yesterday. More sessions are planned in the coming days with more great music and yoga. Please contact Tammy, our All Abilities Coordinator at allabilities@pickeringfc.ca for more details.
  • Our awesome All Abilities leaders put together a positive message for the players and Coach Zain challenged them to a new trick shot too. Thanks to Coaches Jarod, Sarah, Hannah, Christina and Zain for their great message.
Respect
  • Congratulation to our Senior All Abilities player Elliot Smith who graduated with Honours from Sir Sanford Fleming College. His degree in Community Cooperation teaches young adults with a disability about key life skill and enables them to live independently. Click HERE.
Excellence
  •  As we hold out hopes that the League 1 Ontario season will kick off soon, we want to share pictures of this seasons Outdoor 2020 Home and Away jerseys. We’re grateful to Orange Theory Fitness for their sponsorship of our women’s team and to recognize the success of our women who have won the league title TWICE we had two stars added to the badge.  
The Club continued into our third week of excellent Coach and Player webinars:
  • This week our players got to hear first hand from one of Canadas most successful female players and a Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame inductee! Candace Chapman who grew up in the area and won Bronze for Canada at the 2012 Olympic Games chatted for over an hour with coaches and players about her career path.
  • We followed that up with two Special Guests on Thursday. The first, Jason Bent played professionally in Gemrnay, England and the MLS and was capped 32 times for Canada. He is the current Assistant Coach at Toronto FC. Jason’s discussion with Club staff maxed our meeting room at 100 attendees.
  • Our second special guest, Tim Micallef is the other half of the ‘Tim and Sid Show on Sportsnet and a massive sports fan. Tim spoke to his passion for sport and the Canadian Men’s National Team. Tim shared with the attendees the commitment he had from a young age for presenting, the countless volunteer hours and multiple experience he had along the way, describing them as his ‘reps’ on his way to this top job in Canadian sport coverage.
Player Centered
  •  Our program offerings are expanding and now available to both Development (U8-U12) and Recreational (U4-U12) players.
  • Play at Home program is a free work book packed with practices and puzzles.
  • Virtual Training is a FREE weekly practice for Recreational players to work on techniques led by qualified PFC Technical Staff. The first session is Saturday April 25th (10am) with registration required.
  • Our player challenges even caught the attention of CWNT player Jayde Riviere who threw out her own challenge for our players. Congratulations to Maria from our 2007 Girls OPDL team who showed fantastic technique in her video entry.
  • Don’t forget to stay connected and share your soccer stories with us using Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Tag us at #PFCChallenge or #PFCProud

Our weekly calendar will help players prepare for the week ahead:
Transparency and Integrity
  •  Please visit the PFC Website for our new Webinar Policy and online registration form for Recreational players and Competitive players. We’re taking a proactive approach to keeping our kids safe while they’re online with PFC Staff.

  • The PFC Board are assessing appropriate directions for program fees and in regular contact with other Clubs in the area. As a not-for-profit organization our money is very closely accounted for and we hope to get member and community support as we work through this situation. As a recap;
  • Indoor Competitive programs that had remaining sessions we hope to complete during the Outdoor season. Head Coaches are being asked to plan accordingly.
  • Competitive Outdoor season will run and we will assess the cost/deliverables as soon as the picture becomes clearer from our leagues. 
  • Outdoor Recreational season will run and meet its objectives with some festival type and/or multiple games in a week. The Club hopes to launch a ‘Dollar Down’ registration program and payment plan shortly.
 
  • Ontario Soccer reiterated their positive message again this week about summer soccer; “For those who may be concerned about registering for the abridged outdoor season, Ontario Soccer is encouraging participants to do so now, so that Districts, Clubs and Academies can be fully prepared to kick off the Return to Play season when announced”.
 
If there’s something you’d like to learn about the Club or want to see at this time please contact us at the email below. This message follows our previous Club messages (March 19 th , 24 th , April 2 nd , 9 th and 17 th ).

Finally, with hopes of a late June start to our season we encourage you to stay in touch with us. If you have any questions or comments about this message please email: memberservices@pickeringfc.ca with 'COVID Update' in the Subject line.

Stay safe.
 
Matt Greenwood, Executive Director
Pickering Football Club
(905) 831-9803
PickeringFC.ca
Connect with us: