The synergy of a group of girls getting to know each other in 2006 evolved into a national soccer championship two years later.

Cliff Avenue United, a storied minor soccer program in North Burnaby, didn’t have a team in the under-12 category so the call was made to prospective players to start a team. They gathered together for the first time in a meeting room at Burnaby 8-Rinks. The first order of business was choosing a name and since they’d come from many different places for one common purpose they decided Synergy perfectly described what they would have to have to become champions.

To begin with they had many wins, but they also had some losses learning a lot of lessons along the way that would pay off in the future.

Boy did they ever. Their second season together was something to behold. Synergy simply ran roughshod over all comers from coast to coast in going unbeaten in the 32 games they played that season.

In 19 games on the local soccer scene the only blemish on their record was one draw. They breezed through the Coastal Cup A Championships winning all four of their games and another four at the Provincial Cup Championship.

That enabled the Synergy, coached by Mark Pennington and Tony Drescher, to advance to the Canadian U14 youth championships in Prince Edward Island Oct. 5-13, 2008. In their three round-robin games, Cliff Avenue outscored its opposition 16-0 before edging Ontario 3-2 in a semifinal and Quebec 3-1 in the final.

“In our national championship winning season, our biggest challenge was probably the fact that we were a relatively newly formed team with many of the players playing their first season together,” Pennington tells the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame.

“I believe that there were a few things that made this team special, but if I was to highlight one thing in particular it would be the team’s close bond and desire to fight for each other. I think our team name of ‘Synergy’ was very fitting because I believe that we were definitely stronger than the sum of all our individual parts.”

Pennington credits a game earlier in the season and a rivalry with another team as being instrumental in Synergy’s growth and success.

“We played a strong Surrey United team in the middle of the season, and we found ourselves 2-0 down at half and didn’t really look into the game. The players clubbed together in the second half to come back to win 3-2, including a player scoring by sacrificing (herself) to be cleaned out by the goalkeeper showing true heart and getting a broken nose in the process,” recalls Pennington, who now coaches the women’s soccer team at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.

Several players from the team eventually played on varsity post-secondary teams including Samantha Drescher, Tamara Roughead, Simran Parmar and Shayla Chorney for UBC and  Isabella Di Trocchio and Lindsey Pulice at Trinity Western. In addition, after playing for University of the Fraser Valley, goaltender Kayla Klim went on to play professionally in Sweden.

Pennington singles out a couple players and his assistant coach for being the team’s unsung heroes.

“First Samantha Lung. Sam was a pivotal player on this team as a defensive midfielder. She often flew under the radar and didn’t get any of the glory, but this team relied a lot on Sam to win the ball. Sam played a vital role in the success of this team,” says Pennington.

“Second Simran Parmar. Simran was one of the team captains. At nationals Simran hurt her wrist in the semifinals. Knowing that her chances of playing in the final if it was broken were very slim, she didn’t say anything, and even spent a some of the night in pain in the hallway of the hotel the night before the final so she didn’t disturb her roommate. She led the team to victory in the final. A true leader. 

“Finally, the mastermind behind the creation of the team, and assistant coach, Tony Drescher. It was Tony’s vision to create this team. Tony went out and found a coach. He secured sponsorship and funding to allow all the players’ travel expenses to the nationals to be covered.”

Samantha Drescher
Sport – Soccer
School – St. Thomas More

Abbey Vogt:
Sport – Soccer, track and field
School – Burnaby South

As a youngster, Mike McLenaghen thrived in the sporting breeding fields of Wesburn and Confederation Park community centres but eventually it was the soccer pitch where his talent bloomed the most. By 1972, McLenaghen was playing for British Columbia’s first-ever BC under-18 team which won the Western Canadian championship and came second in the national championship.

The next year, the midfielder/defender made Canada’s initial national youth team and was chosen captain. McLenaghen moved on to play at Simon Fraser University participating in two NAIA national championships.

He was a first-round selection of the Minnesota Kicks in the 1979 North American Soccer League draft. He went on to play for not only the Kicks, but the NASL’s Toronto Blizzard, Los Angeles Aztecs and Edmonton Drillers as well. McLenaghen also competed in eight international games for Canada.

When Simon Fraser University decided to form a women’s soccer program in 1988 the school pegged Shelley Howieson as its head coach. She didn’t leave until 2013 after creating a collegiate powerhouse in her 25 years in charge of the program.

Her Clan soccer squads won NAIA national titles in 1996 and 2000, had three consecutive trips to the national finals (1996-98) and went to the NAIA championship tournaments 10 times in a 13-year span (1997-2010).

Howieson was named NAIA coach of the year twice, as well as coach of the year by Sport BC and BC Soccer. In 2010, she was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame. Howieson was inducted into the SFU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2020.

After upsetting five-time British Columbia champion UBC Alumni 2-0 in the provincial final, the Burnaby Canadians Anduccis went on to win the 2001 Canadian senior women’s soccer championship with an ending worthy of a Hollywood script. During group play at the national tournament in Vaughn, Ontario the Canadians defeated Saskatchewan 4-0, Newfoundland 3-0 and Quebec 2-0 while tying Ontario 1-1.

That earned them a berth in the final against Nova Scotia, which had not surrendered a goal in winning all four of its games in the other group. In the final, no goals were scored in regulation, or in 30 minutes of overtime. So it was off to a penalty-kick shootout, which turned into a real nail-biter. After each team scored twice in the usual five-shot shootout, the teams exchanged goals and misses in each successive round to where it was 5-5 after 10 rounds.

That left only the goaltenders eligible to shoot. Burnaby goalie Michele Gademans scored on her shot. She then went back in net and saved the shot by the Nova Scotian keeper to secure a national title for Burnaby.

Back: Manager: Mike Everett, Head Coach: Danny Pietramala, Michelle Gademans, Kathryn Manson, Kristine Jack, Kelly Donaldson, Teresa Latham, Phebe Trotman, Leah Stipic, Janine Duprey, Leanna Byrom, Nadia Salvino, Sian Bagshawe, assistant coaches: Chris Johnson and Scott Fletcher.

Front: Catriona Scheffer, Taryn Cervi, Aimee Dunn, Tanya Genovese, Andrea Poole, Lynsey Burkinshaw, Gillian Hicks, Laura Favaro, Leigh Collins, Veronica Lie, Lisa McLeod, trainer: Jonathan Figueroa.
Missing: Sheryl Pietramala, Rosalyn Hicks

The squad became provincial champions by defeating Fraser Valley 3-1 in the final. That victory earned them the right to represent British Columbia at the 1987 national championships in St. John’s, Nfld. Cliff Avenue defeated the host province and Nova Scotia en route to the final against a team from Scarborough, Ont.

In the final, Cliff Avenue overcame a 1-0 halftime deficit to win the Canadian U16 championship 2-1 in overtime. The hero was Maurizio Catania who scored a minute into the second OT period.

They went on to win the Western Canada title in Saskatchewan and advanced to the national championship in Niagara Falls where they beat the host team on penalty shots after the two clubs tied 2-2 in regulation time on a very wet pitch.

Players, (l -r) Back: Rich Clarke, Lori Gazzola, Jill Dyck, Gail Joljart, Liana Poato, Debbie Bonato, Gwen Dixon, April Fahlen, Karen Bogress.
Front: Karen King, Liz Martinello, Gaynor Preston, Lisa, Beaton, Deanna Bankier, Sheryl Kois, Lea-Ann Small, Connie Bourne.