To view the cup draws and schedules for 2010 Coastal Cup please CLICK HERE
A Brief History of the Coastal Cup
The Coastal Cup may now be a regionalized competition for the Metro Vancouver region and Vancouver Island teams, but this event originated from a famous tournament over 50 years ago.
In its prime, the event was the ultimate achievement in soccer. It began in 1953, and was named the Sun Tournament of Soccer Champions. It provided essential funding to the then struggling youth soccer association that had less than $200. Named after event sponsor, The Vancouver Sun, the event ran for 34 years and featured future stars such as Bob Lenarduzzi, Bruce Twamley, and Carl Shearer.
In 1981 the amalgamation of the BC Girls Soccer Association and the BC Youth Soccer Association, led to two Sun Tournaments, of equal status, one for boys and one for girls. The tournament brought the top fourteen boys’ and girls’ teams from throughout coastal BC, all vying for an opportunity to meet their interior counterparts for the provincial finals. The girls Sun Tourney was unquestionably the highest profile female amateur sports event in the province.
By 1986, the British Columbia Youth Soccer Association’s Board of Directors decided to introduce split-level Provincial Cup Competition to accommodate the widening gap between select and club soccer. The expansion of two tiers allowed more teams the opportunity of reaching the provincial championships.
The format change caused the Vancouver Sun to drop its longstanding support of the program, as newspaper executives feared the new concept would devalue the significance of the tournament. Canada Safeway jumped at the chance to help fund the longstanding event. Safeway coined the concept of presenting a Safeway “Red Jacket” to the Most Valuable Player of each of four Coastal tournaments. Safeway’s involvement ceased in the late 90’s and the event lingered on under Nike and eventually on its own, as it remains today, without a title sponsor.
2009 Results (click image below)