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= Calgary Blizzard Soccer Club =

The Calgary Blizzard Soccer Club is a soccer club in the City of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The CBSC was founded in 1967 and is the oldest youth soccer club in the city of Calgary, and the second oldest soccer club in Calgary to the Calgary Callies.

The Calgary Blizzard Soccer Club currently offers recreational and competitive soccer in Calgary for boys and girls from U4 to U18 and adult leagues for both men and women.

Founding
The Calgary Blizzard Soccer Club began in 1967 when Marino Sedran and Gordon Hawkins took a team of 11 and 12-year-old Calgary boys to represent the province of Alberta at an Expo 67 soccer competition in Montreal. On their return, the team took the name of a defunct Canadian Junior Football team, the “North Hill Blizzards,” and was remodeled around six of the original players. Sedran and Hawkins coached basically the same group of boys, moving up as the players’ ages changed. They played in a league against other Northwest Calgary teams, which included Montgomery, Highwood, and University Heights. From 1967 to 1977, the team won its way to the National Championships three times and captured the National title in 1971 as the top Juvenile Team in Canada.

By the mid 70s, the Northwest communities needed somewhere for their growing numbers of graduating pee wees and older boys to play. Gary Burkholder, soccer coordinator for Brentwood, and Kermit Newman, soccer coordinator for Triwood, helped fulfill this need along with Sedran, Hawkins, and several other soccer enthusiasts, by developing the idea of a Northwest Zone Club to handle soccer activities from Bantam level and up.

The Calgary Blizzard Soccer Club was registered as a Society in the Province of Alberta on March 14, 1977. As one the oldest amateur sporting clubs in the history of Calgary, the three teams of that year have grown exponentially, and in 2016 the club entered 75 teams for both boys and girls into the CMSA outdoor season.

Current Club Structure
The CBSC is governed by a Board of Directors, who are responsible for developing and implementing the purpose, vision, values and strategic priorities for the Club. The operations of the club are overseen by the General Manager, who reports to the Board of Directors.

Two Technical Directors (one for boys, one for girls) oversee the competitive streams of player development, and a Grassroots Manager oversees the pre-competitive development (ages 4-10). The Technical Directors for 2017 are Brendan O'Connell (boys), Glenn Ramsey (girls), and the Grassroots Manager is Andrew Fleming.

Notable Exposures
In 2014, the CBSC successfully placed club members into the international Danone Nations Cup, in Montreal.