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'It's about so much more': Hype building as Halifax Tides prepare for inaugural NSL season

'It's about so much more': Hype building as Halifax Tides prepare for inaugural NSL season

The Northern Super League (NSL) is on the precipice of history.

This coming Wednesday, Vancouver Rise and the Calgary Wild will kickoff the season at B.C. Place, officially marking the highly anticipated launch of the first professional women's football league in Canadian history.

And while history is being made in beautiful British Columbia, the Halifax Tides — one of the league's six founding clubs — will be busy with the final preparations for a season opener to remember at the Wanderers Grounds.

"The anticipation and excitement is off the charts," Val Malone, Halifax Tides president, told The Wanderers Notebook in an exclusive interview.

"We're running full tilt. You can imagine everything going on in terms of kicking it off and having that first game day at the Wanderers Grounds. That's the first time we're actually going to be there. It's about bringing all the pieces together as it relates to our fantastic partners and how they're going to show up on the pitch. (It's about) preparing our athletes, continuing training and ensuring they're prepared and ready to go."

But April 26 — which will see the Tides square off against the Wild for the first match in club history — is about more than a singular football match: it is the culmination of a need for avenues into professional women's sports across the country but especially in Atlantic Canada.

Diana Matheson, the NSL's founder and chief growth officer, said the opening matches will be both emotionally charged and unforgettable.

"You only get to see them once," she said. “But because of the owners we were able to attract, because of the sponsors, because of the fans we have in Canada, even though we’re starting behind here, from day one on kickoff this season, we’re already going to be one of the top five leagues in the world.”

And the Tides are certainly going to make their case as a club to contend with, led by head coach Lewis Page, who won multiple championships and national accolades through his two decades at the University of Prince Edward Island.

The squad divided their pre-season between training at the BMO Soccer Centre in Halifax, a trip to Ottawa and time in the United Kingdom. Malone said, despite the group having only been together since camp opened in February, that the squad has already meshed incredibly well on and off the pitch.

"The team and the connection they’re forming is something out of the storybooks. Hats off to our coaching staff, headed by Lewis, and our sporting director, Amit Batra. They spent the time and the energy to build that," she said.

The Tides roster features a mixture of veteran talent — exemplified by former Canadian Women's National Team goalkeeper Erin McLeod, who was the Tides' first-ever signing — and new professionals. Some notable players include rising New Zealand star Milly Clegg, who was part of the NSL's first loan deal, Karima Lemire, who honed her skills in Germany and Portugal, and Gunnhildur “Gunny” Yrsa Jónsdóttir, who has a decade of experience with the Icelandic national team and a resume that boasts time with clubs like Stjarnan and Orlando Pride.

Part of the club's vision from the beginning, however, revolved around providing opportunities for local players.

“The five Nova Scotians we’ve signed to the club are important because the foundation, from the very beginning, is about building a club for the community by the community, " explained Malone. "Having Atlantic Canadian representation on the pitch was incredibly important to us."

Sarah Taylor, Annika Leslie, Mya Harnish, Syd Kennedy and Saorla Miller make up the Tides local contingent. And even now, months after signing, playing for their hometown club still resonates with these players given it wasn't an option when they were growing up.

“It hits me sometimes,” Kennedy told The Wanderers Notebook in February. “I get to do this for a living and it’s the most amazing feeling.”

It's exactly that feeling that Malone highlighted when discussing what kickoff will mean for the club. In many ways, she said, it extends beyond football.

“It’s about much more than that," she said. "It’s about the ability to drive equity in everything that we do, on and off the pitch. It includes the athletes but it includes our front office staff, our medical staff and everything that we do.”

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Cover Photo Credit: Halifax Tides FC

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