Blue Devils Football Club (formerly known as Oakville Blue Devils FC) is a semi-professional soccer club based in Oakville, Ontario. The senior men's and women's teams currently compete in League1 Ontario men's and women's divisions.[2][3]
History
Past teams of same name
The original Oakville Blue Devils was a member team of the Oakville Soccer Club. The team was built, coached and developed by Phil Iafrati (1947–2013),[4] where they won the U19 provincial and national championships in 1998.[5] As the Devils reached the end of the youth soccer circuit that season, Iafrati restarted the program with the a U9 program Oakville Blue Stars in 1999.[6]
In 2005, the second edition of the Blue Devils were formed when the Scarborough-based Metro Lions of the Canadian Professional Soccer League relocated to Oakville and adopted the Blue Devils name,[5] coached by Duncan Wilde.[7] They won the 2005 season defeating Vaughan Shooters in the final.[8] In 2006, Wilde left to manage the Toronto Lynx, which resulted in a mass exodus of players not returning. [9] The club was relocated in 2007 and became Brampton United, bringing to an end the period of the Oakville Blue Devils history.[4]
Revival
In 2015, the club was founded to play in the semi-professional League1 Ontario, named after the original team from prior years.[4] The Toronto Lynx men's senior team was incorporated into the Oakville team[10] and in late 2017, the teams merged completely under Oakville's umbrella.[11] In their inaugural L1O season, they were crowned league champions and qualified for the Inter-Provincial Cup against the champion of the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec to determine the Canadian Division III champion, where they defeated CS Mont-Royal Outremont to win the title.[12] In 2017, they won their second title, defeating Woodbridge Strikers in the Championship final on penalty kicks.[13]
In 2018, the team played in the Canadian Championship for the first time where they lost in the first qualifying round against 2017 PLSQ champion AS Blainville.[14][15][16][17] Later, during the 2018 season, they played a friendly against Italian professional Serie A club Frosinone Calcio, losing by a score of 2–0.[18][19][20]
Also in 2018, the club added a team in the women's division of League1 Ontario, beginning in the 2018 season.[21][22] In their second season, the women advanced to the Championship Final, where they were defeated by FC London.[23] In 2021, the women once again finished as runner-ups after being defeated in the finals by the Woodbridge Strikers.[23]
In 2020, the club merged with GPS Academy and was renamed to Blue Devils FC.[24] The men finished as runner-ups in both 2021 and 2022, being defeated in the Championship Finals by Guelph United FC and Vaughan Azzurri, respectively.[23]
Front office and technical Staff
As of July 18, 2018[25]
Squad
As of 16 April 2023[26]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
^"Steven Caldwell Joins Oakville Blue Devils FC To Help Guide Club into the Future". Oakville Blue Devils FC. Archived from the original on October 24, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
^"Oakville Blue Devils's official website". Oakville Blue Devils. Oakville Blue Devils. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
^"Oakville Blue Devils's page in". League1 Ontario. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
^ a b c"About". Oakville Blue Devils. Oakville Blue Devils. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
^ a bKuiperij, Jon (January 30, 2015). "League1 Ontario men's soccer loop welcomes Oakville Blue Devils". Oakville Beaver.
^Kuiperij, Jon (September 19, 2013). "Iafrati, Phil (Died)". Oakville Beaver. Oakville Images.
^"Canadian Professional Soccer League - Clubs". December 25, 2005. Archived from the original on December 25, 2005. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
^Kuiperij, Jon (October 12, 2005). "Blue Devils' Gamble pays off in CPSL final" (PDF). Oakville Beaver.
^"Different cast of Blue Devils seeks repeat". Burlington Post. May 26, 2006.
^Crawford, Colin (February 29, 2016). "Toronto's Soccer History: 1987 - Present". Toronto FC. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
^"Toronto Lynx Soccer Club". Archived from the original on March 7, 2018. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
^Kuiperij, Jon (November 17, 2015). "Goal by defensive sub lifts Oakville Blue Devils to victory in Inter-Provincial Cup". Oakville Beaver.
^Chenoix, Éric (May 30, 2018). "À la Découverte du Oakville Blue Devils FC" [Discovering Oakville Blue Devils FC]. PLSQ (in French).
^"Oakville Blue Devils qualifies for Canadian Championship – Canada Soccer". Canadian Soccer Association. Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2018.
^"AS Blainville qualifies for Canadian Championship – Canada Soccer". Canadian Soccer Association. Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2018.
^"About the Canadian Championship". Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
^Garbutt, Herb (October 22, 2017). "Oakville Blue Devils reclaim League1 title with dramatic penalty-kick victory". Oakville Beaver. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
^"Frosinone Calcio is Here in Canada". Molisana Imports. July 18, 2018.
^"Frosinone - Oakville Blue Devils 2-0". Frosinone Calcio (in Italian). July 26, 2018.
^"Tournée Canada/USA, il programma delle Amichevolu" [Tournée Canada/USA, the friends' program]. Frosinone Calcio (in Italian). July 17, 2018.