Wolves stoked with move to Premier Division
The St. Catharines Club Roma Wolves are moving up a division and doing it with a new coach.
As a result of Pickering Soccer Club securing a spot in the Women’s Championship division for 2024, the Wolves have been elevated to League1 Ontario Women’s Premier Division.
“It’s massive,” said Mark Bolton, Club Roma’s General Manager, Soccer Operations. “We were very fortunate to be able to move back to that Premier Division. It’s something we can offer than no one else in southern Ontario really has. If you look at Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, Brampton, those teams aren’t in the Premier Division any more.
“We’re very, very excited about that.”
Roma technical director of soccer Davide Massafra said plans are in the works to put together the best possible roster.
“We are working towards improving our roster from last year, and as such, we have been in communication with a few talented players already. However, our aim is to provide an opportunity to play for all top female players in Niagara,” Massafra said.
Open tryouts are set to begin Jan. 24 from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Youngs Sportsplex in Welland.
The Wolves will be coached by Elisa Camporese, a former Italian star who has played in four UEFA Women’s Championships and won four Serie A titles.
“We’re so excited about this new coach,” Bolton said. “She’s got relationships with some girls from Team Canada so she’s bringing a ton of experience here, not only as a coach, but as a player.
“We were put in a position where a coach decided to move on to another opportunity so we needed to find a replacement fairly quickly. We interviewed multiple candidates and Elyssa, she was another level.”
Bolton feels having Camporese on board will also be a selling point for players.
“I think it should be a draw. I mean, who wouldn’t want to play for someone with that experience, not only as a coach, but as a player. She played at the highest level in the world. You can’t get much better than that.
“We are talking with all the players who were here last year to give them information as to what’s going on and in the next four weeks we’ll be doing some open tryouts so in another month we’ll know better what we have.”
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