Boxing Day is many things to many people, but giving and remembrance are at the top of the list for soccer fans in Powell River who attend the annual Steve Steele memorial soccer game.
In large cities massive crowds of delirious shoppers at overcrowded malls top the news headlines as consumers become consumed by Boxing Day sales that stretch through what has become Boxing Day week.
The never-ending blitz of flyers, window signs declaring the “best sale of the year” and Internet access threaten the holiday’s original intent but, as we do in so many other ways, Powell River chooses to ignore the masses.
Instead, our soccer community has combined the best of Boxing Day traditions and in doing so has given soccer families and friends of Steele a chance to gather at Timberlane Park.
Europeans, since the Middle Ages, chose this day to give money and other gifts to those who were needy and in service positions, while in the United Kingdom, premier leagues in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland chose to hold a full program of rugby and soccer matches.
Only natural then, that Powell River soccer combine the two to raise funds through the sport for a very special cause.
The Boxing Day classic was founded by George Richardson in 1968 and the proceeds from the charity game were offered to United Nations’ International Children’s Emergency Fund’s Cup of Milk Fund.
It featured a game between the men’s league champion and a selects team but when Powell River Villa was formed in 1973 it became a contest between Villa and the league all-stars.
Steele was heavily involved with all things soccer, including both the men’s league and Villa, so when he succumbed to cancer the soccer community turned the Boxing Day event into a remembrance of him in 1993 and directed the proceeds to the Canadian Cancer Society.
It’s a fitting way to celebrate the holiday and give recognition of Steele’s contribution to Powell River because, as his good friend Iain Livingstone has said, “A lot of young people come back at Christmas and the game is almost secondary to the meetings and carryings on, on and off the field.”
And that is exactly what happens as family and friends have an opportunity to reacquaint themselves with old friends while attending a worthwhile charity in the name of a very special man.
Last year Steele’s friends, Bill Cornwall and Livingstone, were joined by Steele’s family to present the team trophy to Rino Parise of the Men’s League All-Stars.
Lee Illing scored the game’s only goal in the 1-0 decision and individual awards for Most Valuable Player went to Tony Rice for the All-Stars and Connor Brady for Villa.
This year everyone is invited to come out at 1:30 pm to Timberlane Park for the 20th Steve Steele classic where hundreds will gather to watch Villa FC 3A battle Powell River United Over 35.
