From 1976 to 1984, the Victoria West Soccer Club compiled a Canadian soccer record unequaled by any other club in the nation. At the start of their eighth decade, Vic West assembled a team of good young players that came up through the local minor soccer system, and during that glorious run, they won six BC and four Canadian championships!

By the 1974 season, the Vancouver Island Soccer League had expanded to 40 teams and the league had gained some credibility. Columnist Max Low confirmed that two years after the new alignment, the game was booming and drawing crowds equal to the old Pacific Coast Soccer League. Vic West's coach, George Paul, recruited an entire gang of young Victoria talent including Steve Forslund, Butch Foster, Gary McLaren, Jim De Goode, John McGuire, Rob Williams, and Steve Moss who played together throughout the West's greatest decade. In 1976, Vic Wests won their 16th historic Jackson Cup, and as Vancouver Island Soccer League champions, they went on to defeat the Italia Canadian side to become only the second Victoria club to engrave their name on the Province Cup. The team, coached by Doug Hill, made plans for Winnipeg and the Canadian finals where they beat Fort Rouge in a come -from-behind victory to win the Dominion Challenge Cup.

Vic Wests would do it all again in the 1978-79 season. With Bob English as coach, they beat UVic for the Jackson Cup, trounced Vancouver Croatia for the Province Cup, and then went on to score their second Dominion Challenge Cup by defeating the La Salle Olympiques.

The 1980-81 season saw the Wests defeat the Surrey Firefighters in the Provincial finals for yet another BC crown but they lost to Calgary in a penalty shoot-out after overtime. Their plans for the threepete were dashed.

The next season would be different as Lady Luck smiled on the Wests in their nail-biting defeat of Vancouver Croatia for a fourth BC title. The team went on to beat Winnipeg and Calgary in the Western finals, and then enjoyed a character-building match where they scored four times on Saskatoon United in a howling wind and atrocious field conditions for a third Canadian title.

Butch Foster was the 1983-84 playing coach when they defeated Kamloops for a sixth Province Cup. Victoria hosted the Canadian finals when the Wests won their fourth Canadian title in eight unbelievable seasons -- 1976, 1979, 1983 and 1984. Included in the Vic West's astonishing run were four straight BC titles -- the only team to hold that distinction in the history of the Province Cup, and as the dominant amateur soccer team in Canada, the Wests did it with an unparalleled commitment to teamwork.

SPONSORED BY VICTORIA WEST ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

He played in more than 200 professional matches and won the 1979 Soccer Bowl with the Vancouver Whitecaps. Yet for Victoria's Bob Bolitho, who played youth soccer with Gorge and won a senior amateur national title with the London Boxing Club, playing for his country was among the biggest thrills of his career.

The versatile defender-midfielder joined the national team in 1974 and spurned offers to turn pro out of a desire to play in the 1976 Olympics. Bolitho played well in a pair of Canadian losses at the Summer Games, and earned offers from five North American Soccer League pro teams. He would call the Olympics the "greatest thrill of my life."

He starred from 1977 to 1980 with the Whitecaps and played for three other NASL teams before ending his pro career.

Showing uncanny anticipation and ball-handling skills, Bolitho earned 37 caps in seven years for Canada and helped prove this country belonged on the world soccer stage.

SPONSORED BY VANCOUVER ISLAND SOCCER LEAGUE