Competitive soccer reborn
North Dundas captain Blake Esau (in yellow) fi ghts for control of the ball at the May 28 match against Ottawa TFC Silver
by Brandon Mayer
It has been several decades since North Dundas had a competitive soccer team, but thanks to some dedicated local volunteers, the North Dundas United Soccer Club has three league teams competing this year. While not all age groups had enough interest to form competitive teams, the NDUSC did successfully manage to register U9, U11, and U14 teams with the Eastern Ontario Soccer League for the 2025 season.
At the soccer club’s annual general meeting last fall, local mom Marie Duncan, and long time NDUSC coach and former local competitive player, Evan Porteous both proposed the idea of reintroducing competitive soccer to the local area. Marie agreed to fill one of the volunteer director positions on the NDUSC board, and was instrumental in getting all of the behind the scenes work done to get competitive soccer back off the ground.
Meanwhile, Evan took on some background work as well, and accepted the coaching role for the U14 competitive team. Along with the rest of the NDUSC volunteers, the pair helped to put North Dundas back on the map when it comes to competitive soccer.
Evan’s U14 team has had 3 games so far, the latest of which happened on June 4, after the Times publication deadline. The first game took place on May 21 against the Ottawa Gloucester Black team, with North Dundas pulling off a solid win on the home field at Chesterville.
On May 28, another home game took place in Chesterville, ending in a tie game between North Dundas U14 and the Ottawa TFC Silver team.
The June 4 away game was in Carleton Place, score not yet known as of the time of writing. All of the NDUSC competitive teams are showing great promise. The Township made great efforts to get the Chesterville field in proper shape to be used this season, and for that, the club members are truly grateful.
When asked what motivated him to push for competitive soccer in North Dundas, Evan had a clear answer: “We were going to lose most of these players to other clubs. The kids wanted it, so let’s do it. It’s been fun to watch so far.”
With the success of this season so far, it’s likely that competitive soccer will continue to grow in popularity locally, with potentially more teams up and running next year. In the meantime, Evan is enjoying his coaching gig this year, adding: “I’m coaching my coach’s grandkids now!”
More local soccer stats will be share as the season progresses. The competitive soccer season runs until mid September.