Valour FC Tryouts & Club Guide: History, Stadium, Players, and More!

Valour Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League and plays its home matches at IG Field.

Valour FC Youth Development System

Valour FC Youth programs will be aimed at boys and girls from the ages 4 – 18. Age-specific, we will teach the concepts of football for them to be able to deal successfully with the challenges of the game at various levels.

Valour’s training model will have the player at the core of its approach. Importantly, we will also be teaching the values that are representative of Valour FC throughout all our programs: Respect, effort, ambition, and teamwork.

The same training methods and concepts will be used throughout our youth programs, consisting of a series of progressive and interrelated exercises, adapted to each stage of a player’s development.

At the same time, Valour will invest in grassroots directly by providing an array of coaching seminars and opportunities. Valour will bring hands on, real time experiences to our local coaches, challenging them to develop their skills in the core coaching competencies for them to be better prepared to lead the next generation of footballers in our Province.

Mini Soccer Program (4-8 year old’s)

“Love at first sight, fall in love with soccer, fall in love with Valour”. Providing a fun, encouraging, and energetic first experience for 4 – 8 year olds, Valour FC Mini programs aim to begin a soccer player’s lifelong journey in our sport on the right foot.

Operated and ran by Valour FC Curriculum and Implementation includes Valour Staff, Players, Valour Youth Support Staff from our club affiliated partners

The Valour FC “Fall in love with soccer” mini program may be a child’s first experience in our sport. It is crucial that it is a fun, rewarding, energetic, yet challenging experience. Each session would consist of four 15 minute stations, each focusing on a different element of our sport, from physical literacy to ball mastery, all the while focusing on delivering a fun, and infectious experience.

Divided into working groups of 12 or less, stages would be divided into two categories:

• Beginners – 4 – 6-year-olds

• Pre-training 6 – 8-year-olds

Group stations will be led by appropriate staff and involve exercises that will allow pupils maximum participation and allow the coach to play a more direct role in the player’s development. Click here to sign up for the mini soccer program.

Skill Builders (8 – 14 year old’s)

The Valour FC Youth Skill Builders will focus on the “Learn to Train” stage of athlete development. Increasingly more challenging, the four-corner approach to skill acquisition, principles of play, and other core competencies will be key for success at later stages. At this stage, core Valour game model concepts can be introduced through age-specific exercises – not tactics! Through ball mastery, expanded physical literacy, and developing high-level muscle memory for core skills.

Divided into working groups of 15 or less, stages would be divided into two categories:

• Junior Training – 9 –11 year olds

• Senior raining – 11 –14 year olds

Group stations will be led by appropriate staff and involve exercises that will allow pupils maximum participation and allow the coach to play a more direct role in the player’s development. Click here to sign up for the skill builders program.

High Performance (15 – 18 year old’s)

The Valour FC High Performance Centre of Excellence aims to prepare athletes for the first step in their career as football players, whether that be Canadian national teams, professional, collegiate, or otherwise. The ultimate goal is to prepare male players for the Valour F.C. first team, and female players for various CWNT categories using the Valour FC Elite Girls team. Recognizing that not all players will aspire or have the ability to attain the highest levels of the sport, Valour FC will work with each individual athlete to help them carve out their unique pathway.

Core to our approach, the “Train to Train” stage of development, would include a comprehensive program, consistent with Valour 1st team curriculum and progressions. Leveraging Valour FC staff, players, medical, and operational team, the long term goal of the Valour FC Elite Youth program would be to develop a comprehensive Athlete Care program, providing support and training on the emotional, phycological, as well as the technical, tactical, and physical side of the sport. The holistic approach alongside our core value of better people make better athletes. Other long-term initiatives could include preparing athletes for professional or collegiate sport, social media training, public speaking challenges, leadership and teambuilding workshops to name a few.

Valour F.C. values must be present in every aspect of the high-performance program. Values and attitude can be learned, and at this prime age, our athletes and staff will represent the Valour crest with utmost pride. While each participant will represent their own individual club, it is expected that the respect, ambition, effort, and teamwork that is taught within the Valour F.C. Centre of Excellence program will be carried out into the broader football community with these players.

Professionalizing the game in our Province starts with the Valour FC High Performance Centre of Excellence! Click here to sign up for the high performance program.

Soccer Camps

Operated and ran by Valour F.C. Curriculum and Implementation includes Valour Staff, Players, Valour Youth Support Staff from our club affiliate partners

Camps are prevalent across all Sports and other areas like arts etc. as parents look for ways to keep kids entertained and are relatively inexpensive in comparison to day care costs, especially during school holidays and breaks when many parents still have to work.

A camp would be between 2 minimum and 5 days maximum with options of 2 hour session for minis, 3 hour half day programs or full day programs for kids aged 5-14 (typically past high school ages camp attendance is minimal but team camps with districts regions or specific high performance camps will also be available on demand. A full day camp with have a split day emphasis

In Season – Guest appearances by 1st team staff and Players could occur by also providing a 1st team training session at the camp venue – this would aid regional development in rural areas and regions outside of Winnipeg as we demonstrated in our 1st year (Portage, Steinbach, Brandon). These could also take place over weekends – schedules aligning with our regional jamboree initiatives and run in support of those. Click here to sign up for the soccer camp programs.

Youth Affiliate Clubs

The Valour FC Youth Soccer Club Affiliate Program provides technical soccer support and assistance to a select group of clubs in the City of Winnipeg and throughout the province. Youth Club Affiliates will have significant access to the Valour coaches and players while also having access to unique ticket packages and experiences.

The program utilizes the technical knowledge of the Valour FC professional club to give our Youth Club Affiliates an enhanced ability to develop their youth talent by providing a structured pathway to the professional level for their members along with meeting the needs of all youth players in the community.

Valour’s training model will have the player at the core of its approach. It will offer consistency between the stages of LTPD, whilst providing the foundations and necessary building blocks to better equip players of all ability levels, to continue their chosen pathways within the game. The Valour FC Club Affiliate program strives toward the collective goal of helping provide unique support and programming for each Club through coach education, sharing of resources and development opportunities. Click here to sign up for more information.

Valour FC Elite Girls

Led by Head Coach Jim Zinko and Manager Trevor Kidd, the Valour FC Elite Girls’ team continue the tradition of educating players and parents in the realities of the recruiting process, stressing the importance of good grades at all times, and helping families create their own unique opportunities through competition at some of the highest level showcases in North America.

The program strives to educate players and parents in the recruiting process, and travel to showcases in the U.S and Canada to compete in front of college coaches.

“We are proud to have the Valour FC Elite Girls program in place,” said Wade Miller, President & CEO of Valour FC. “We are committed to supporting and growing the sport within the province and getting involved with existing programs.”

“Since 2010, we have seen 73 players from our program earn over 4 million dollars in scholarships in Canada and the U.S.,” said Zinko. “That’s an average of 12 per year, with some deciding to attend our great programs at the University of Winnipeg and University of Manitoba.” Click here to learn more about the Valour FC Elite Girls Program.

Valour FC Recruitment Trials

At the time of this writing, there is no official publishing’s on Valour FC trials. Please come back at a later date while we monitor this club or click here to visit their official news section. Additionally, explore Valour FC social media accounts below:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Snapchat

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Valour FC History

When the Canadian Premier League was unanimously approved on May 6, 2017, Winnipeg was one of two cities that were recognized for professional club participation by the Canadian Soccer Association. The other city was Vancouver. It has been established that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League are the organizations that are responsible for the ownership groups.

The position of club president has been given to Wade Miller, who formerly served as CEO of the Winnipeg Football Club. In May of 2018, it was stated that the name of the club would be Valor Football Club. On June 6, 2018, the club was presented to the public for the first time as the fourth team that will be participating in the Canadian Premier League. In addition to announcing that it will participate in the league’s inaugural season in 2019, the club also unveiled its official emblem, color scheme, and branding.

On June 26th, the club announced that Rob Gale will be taking over the roles of general manager and head coach. The overall rankings placed Valour in sixth place out of seven teams in 2019, sixth place out of eight teams in 2020, and fifth place out of eight teams in 2021. On September 23, 2021, with Valour FC sitting in fifth place in the standings, the club fired head coach Rob Gale and hired Phillip Dos Santos to take over in that role.

Valour FC Stadium

IG Field is a stadium that can accommodate 33,234 people and is used by the club for all of its home games. On the University of Manitoba campus, the stadium was opened in 2013 and is located right next to University Stadium. Additionally, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the University of Manitoba Bisons football team, and the Winnipeg Rifles also play their home games at the stadium.