Wall adds the Niagara Falls Badgers
The Brock men’s soccer team that won the Canadian Interuniversity Sport title 1-0 in overtime over the Carleton Ravens in 2002 was powered by athletes from Niagara Falls.
The only Brock soccer team to ever win a national title included Niagara Falls natives David Cuviello, Paul Delano, John Folino, Mike Folino, John Gallo, Brian King, and Vince Lepiane.
The seven were inducted into the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame before a packed house at the Gale Centre on Jan. 21.
“What I notice here is that there are more people here than we ever had for a home game. We had 15 people but more people came as we started winning,” Cuviello said.
He stated the team didn’t win based on skill and hard work only.
“We were legitimately a very close, loving bunch. We did everything together. I know the night before the national championship game we had a meeting in one of the hotel rooms to sort of lay out everything on the line and we wouldn’t have lost that game.”
Gallo echoed Cuviello’s comments about the closeness of the team.
“As a member of many teams on my youth in Niagara Falls, whether it be soccer, hockey, volleyball or track, I always say my fondest memories came from playing sports and my closest friends were also playing sports as well,” he said. “It is very fitting that the seven of us are being inducted together as members of the winning national soccer team from Brock because that is what has carried us to victory back in 2002. Not because of one single player like Dave said but because of a brotherhood, a willingness to do whatever it took to fight for each other as teammates, as friends and win.”
Gallo felt much of that fight came from the history the seven players had together growing up in Niagara Falls and the close bonds that they formed playing house league soccer together or playing opposite of each other as early as the age of six.
“With nearly 50 per cent of our Brock team being from the Falls, there was no real chemistry that needed to be formed when we joined the Brock team,” he said. “We already had that head start and did something no other team had done before at Brock, win a national men’s soccer title.”
Cuviello went from house league to travel to playing provincially and then semi-pro before joining Brock. The captain of an Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championship team at Saint Michael, was named to Brock’s Academic and Athletic All-Canadian lists.
Gallo was a two-time Ontario Cup winner with the Thorold Cobras, a national silver medalist with Team Ontario and played with the St. Catharines Roma Wolves of the Canadian Professional Soccer League. At Brock, he was the team’s rookie of the year, a three-time Ontario University Athletics First Team All-Star, a two-time First Team All-Canadian, a two-time team MVP and a four-time Academic All-Canadian. He played for Team Canada at the World University Games in Daegu, South Korea in 2003. After Brock, he played competitive soccer at Club Italia and Club Roma.
John Folino was an Ontario Cup runner-up with the St. Catharines Soccer Club and was an Academic All-Canadian in the championship year at Brock.
Mike Folino represented A.N. Myer in soccer at OFSAA and went on to win national championships at the University of Western Ontario in 1998 and Brock University in 2002. He is a National C licensed coach with the Canadian Soccer Association and coached with the Brock men’s and women’s teams. He is the goalkeeper technical director for Niagara United Soccer club and has also served as the goalkeeper coach for the Niagara Regional Soccer was a two-time Ontario Cup winner with the Thorold Cobras, a national silver medalist with Team Ontario. Folino is the co-owner of Juventus Academy Niagara.
King won three league championships with Club Roma and made tit to the Ontario Cup finals. At Saint Paul, he helped his team to back-to-back Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association championships.
Lepiane was a two-time Ontario Cup winner with the Thorold Cobras and a national silver medalist with Team Ontario, He also played for Scarborough Azzurri and was included in the U20 Canadian National Team Reserve. He played pro with Durham City FC in the Fifth Division. At Brock, he was an OUA First Team All-Star and represented Team Canada at the World University Games in Daegu, South Korea. He is a Canadian national certified coach and is currently the head goalkeeper coach for the Niagara Football Club, the Niagara Falls Soccer Club and the Brock men’s team.
BPSN is looking for a Niagara Falls business or individual to sponsor our continued coverage of the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame. Please email bpuchalski@cogeco.ca for more information.
