There is a glaring gap in the Lower Island soccer scene and it is being filled in part by, of all places, Langara College in Vancouver.

Despite that soccer is a popular sport in Greater Victoria, there is no opportunity to play post-secondary below the University of Victoria Vikes and the CIS level.

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The Vancouver Island University Mariners of Nanaimo have had recent Pacwest success and won the national colleges championship in 2010, placed third nationally in 2011 and second in 2012, 2014 and again this year. But Camosun College — which completed a standout sporting season with a national championship in men’s volleyball, national second-place in golf and national third-place in women’s volleyball — does not offer soccer at the varsity level despite having one of the best field venues on the Island at PISE on the Interurban campus.

Enter the Langara Falcons men’s soccer team, which is holding a tryout camp for all interested male players from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at the UVic fields.

“When I coached B.C. at the Canada Summer Games and Western Canada Games, I would always have three to five players from the Island,” said Langara head coach Marc Rizzardo.

Among them were the likes of Riley O’Neill, who came out of Campbell River to star in the NCAA for the University of Kentucky Wildcats, play for Canada at the Under-20 World Cup and become a European pro.

Rizzardo, who has won four Canadian colleges championships in his 25 years at the Langara helm, saw an untapped source to be mined. The past two seasons he has brought his Falcons team over for pre-season games against the Vikes.

“I thought, let’s think outside the box in terms of [Langara’s normal Lower Mainland recruiting area].”

“If you feel you’re not ready for UVic soccer yet, for whatever reason, Langara is an option. You can always transfer back to UVic. We really would love to have one to two [Island] players make the jump and come over. We are going to be a very good team [next season]. We have a number of players returning and are looking for players to augment our strong lineup.”

Langara — which offers soccer, basketball and badminton — has turned into a bit of a men’s soccer pipeline for the Vikes. Former Falcons goalkeeper and Claremont-grad Noah Pawlowski is providing quite the story at UVic as a 30-something Canada West all-star. The Vikes will also soon announce a Falcons recruit coming to UVic for next season.

The connection between Rizzardo and UVic head coach Bruce Wilson and assistant coach Ian Bridge goes back more than three decades. Rizzardo was physiotherapist for the Canadian soccer team at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, at which Wilson and Bridge played.

Rizzardo was also Canadian head physiotherapist at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and London 2012 Summer Games and Canadian women’s soccer team physio at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

He said he is looking for not only graduating Grade 12 players on Sunday, but also older, top-level players from the Vancouver Island Soccer League Division 1 looking to pursue an education with their soccer.

Meanwhile, Camosun College athletics co-ordinator Graham Matthews said the Chargers would like to include soccer in the future, but funding is the issue.

“There is a strong soccer community in Victoria and our vision includes having soccer at Camosun College,” said Matthews.

“It’s the next sport we would like to add. But we do not have the financial wherewithal at the moment. The facility [a fine one at PISE on the Interurban campus] is just one part of it. We need the other part of it [the funding for men’s and women’s soccer teams].”

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com