SOOKE HISTORY: Soccer has long been a favourite pastime in Sooke<\/p>\n
Published 5:45 am Thursday, July 30, 2026<\/p>\n
Canada has probably never been more engrossed with soccer, and Sooke as well, as during these past few weeks. Sooke, however, initially had soccer teams since way back in 1907. Today\u2019s photo was taken somewhere around 1990, of a youth soccer team sponsored by Evergreen Paint & Hardware.<\/p>\n
This hardware store, under the ownership of Mal and Diane Cummings, operated in the mall that stood on the water side of Highway 14, by today\u2019s roundabout, a mall that was once centred by Irly Bird Building Supplies. The Cummings opened their store, called Evergreen Paint & Hardware, in 1985, assisted by their employee Pam Wright, and carried not only paint but fishing gear, sports gear and all manner of hardware supplies. Like many Sooke businesses, the Cummings supported kids\u2019 sports, the Sooke Marine Rescue Society, and as Diane says, \u201cAny time we had a spare dollar, we were helping out where it was needed.\u201d <\/p>\n
We\u2019ve had some of the young folk in this photo identified by Matt Hornsby, and we would welcome any further identification readers may be able to offer us. Back row from left: Coach Welch, Tim Filgate, Jason Welch, unknown, unknown, Mike Hannam, Nathan Balback, Dylan Waters. In front: Kyle MacDonald, Shane Coles, Matt Hornsby, unknown, Blake Waters, and Coach Allan Hornsby. Apparently this team had started out as the Spartans and later became the United.<\/p>\n
Magnifying the wording on the soccer ball held by Matt Hornsby, we note FIFA; sports fans will recognize this term from the TV coverage of the sport, signifying Federation Internationale de Football Association. This photo was taken at Fred Milne Field on Sooke River Road, where soccer continues to be one of the highlights, one of the most popular sports on site.<\/p>\n
Mal and Diane Cummings continued to operate their retail store until 1998, when they retired. In today\u2019s world, it is Sooke Home Hardware that is recognized as our town\u2019s major outlet for a range of hardware supplies. <\/p>\n
Elida Peers is the historian with Sooke Region Museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOOKE HISTORY: Soccer has long been a favourite pastime in Sooke Published 5:45 am Thursday, July 30, 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-835995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}