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Founder. General manager. Coach.

“Chief bottle washer, head of marketing … sometime uniform washer, barbecue puller, beer pong coordinator … I’m whatever is needed,” laughs Will Cromack, co-coach of the TSS Rovers, the new soccer denizens of Swangard Stadium.

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The Rovers are a team in the Premier Development League, which sits on the fourth rung of the North American soccer pyramid, and the product of two friends with a dream: the emergence of Canadian soccer onto the national stage. Cromack and Colin Elmes knew it would have to start at the grassroots.

Their players are almost all under the age of 24, and all — and this is the important part — are Canadian, either by birth or immigration status. They’re not paid, and most are either university students or working part time, but all have some talent.

There are former Vancouver Whitecaps residency players and former and current university players, and many come from the ranks of Richmond’s TSS Academy, which was founded by Elmes and has produced players such as Christine Sinclair and Terry Dunfield.