PHOTOS: ‘Goosebumps’ as students fill Surrey stadium for soccer games
Published 2:00 pm Thursday, May 14, 2026
Surrey school students and teachers filled Bear Creek Stadium for a pair of Unity FC soccer matches this week.
The pro-am club’s Surrey Schools Series saw the women’s team face Vancouver Rise FC academy on Wednesday morning (May 13) in BC Premier League (BCPL) play, followed by the men’s side vs. Whitecaps FC academy team Thursday.
The games were organized to gives Surrey students a chance to experience high-level soccer at the year-old stadium, which seats 2,200 people.
Wednesday, field-tripping kids clambered to catch free soccer balls and water bottles tossed into the crowd, and cheered loudly when players walked to the pitch and goals were scored.
“It’s been absolutely amazing to see the smiles on the on the faces of the kids, and teachers even having a good time. You know you hit the mark when the teachers are having a good time,” Kelcey Brade, Unity FC co-owner and president, said during Wednesday’s game.
“I got goosebumps from all the excitement,” he added. “Today I think we have eight schools and over 1,500 students here, which is amazing. They’re loud, they’re into it. All of the kids are from schools closest to the park here.… For many of these students, this is their first live sporting event.”
A pre-match photo-op involved Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and other civic politicians, refs and club reps.
Surrey-based Unity FC teams typically play at Cloverdale Athletic Park but moved to the larger Bear Creek Stadium for the Surrey School Series, supported by the City of Surrey and Surrey Schools.
^^ UnityFC and Rise women take the pitch at Surrey’s Bear Creek Stadium. Men play tomorrow morning at 11am. https://t.co/jfe4zbVCav pic.twitter.com/ybZw40s0wO
— Tom Zillich (@TomZillich) May 13, 2026
The soccer league’s spring season ends mid-June, around the time when the 2026 FIFA World Cup starts.
“The exciting part about this league is the growth and expansion,” Brade raved. “Starting this fall, it’s going to move into a fall-winter season plus spring- summer. So we’re looking to deliver for the players up to 28 games a season. It’s becoming a more competitive season where players can say, ‘I want to play in this league so I can go semi-professional or I want to go professional.’”
A lot of the players are local, from Surrey, Langley, Burnaby and other soccer hotbeds.
“The last couple years have been great for us because we’ve seen the growth of our club and players now reaching out,” Brade said. “I get emails on a weekly basis from players who want to come try out for Unity, play for Unity, both men and women.”
The men’s side “is in a bit of a re-tooling season,” he added, “where we’ve gone younger to really engage with that younger, ambitious player. On the women’s side, this team is hungry. They’ve experienced winning before at different levels and they’ve brought that ambition to try and see if we can win a championship this year.”
The Rise women won Wednesday’s game 3-2, followed by Whitecaps academy’s 7-2 victory Thursday.
For Unity FC schedule, scores and ticket details visit unityfc.ca.