corner flag #7 | she carey's on winning

Carey Gustafson is a very familiar face in local soccer circles. The graduate of Claremont Secondary is a product of the early years of Metro Soccer. Her girls team, coached by Dave Dew, was the first Victoria area Metro team to win a provincial championship. They finished third in nationals that year.

Success followed her to Tracy David's University of Victoria Vikes where she was the tournament MVP in the 2005 CIS National Championships, the Vikes first national title in women's soccer. 

Multiple championships in Lower Island Women's Soccer with Gorge FC and Pacific Coast League's Victoria Stars adds to her star studded resume.

The highlight of her career was a late call-up to the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2006. Many national team players on the Whitecaps squad were called away to national duty, along with injuries and sickness that decimated their roster. The undefeated Whitecaps went into Fort Collins, Colorado and salvaged a 1-1 draw thanks to Gustafon's 84' come from behind finish on a corner kick. She stayed with Whitecaps FC as they became the first team in W-League history to win a league championship in undefeated fashion.

Recently, Gustafson has taken on a roll of coaching youth players in the community. This past season, she coached Prospect Lake's u13 Bronze Tigers girls to a league championship with 14 wins and 2 ties in 18 games. The previous season, the Tigers had no wins to speak of.

Carey was selected by Lower Island Youth Soccer to coach the u15 girls West Coast Capitals Super Y Team this spring. She simply led the young ladies to a Pacific Northwest division title and automatic berth to the USL's Super Y North American Finals in Tampa, Florida. The five day event is held the third week of November.

Miss Gustafson is likely the first graduate of the Victoria are Metro soccer program that Incider is aware of who returns to the program as a full time coach. An exciting time and great opportunity to model levels of success at a high standard to young soccer minds. 

Tryouts recently ended and her roster is named for the u16 girls team. With one goal in mind, there is hope combined with a champions' pedigree to find success this forth coming season.

She is not finished by any measure and we are likely to see Carey often on the coaching scene in Victoria, sharing her winning passion of the beautiful game, for many years to come.