OTTAWA, ON – On Wednesday, May 28th at Lansdowne Park’s Horticulture Building, the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame will induct the Class of 2025 into our local sports shrine. Each Wednesday until the ceremony, the Sport Hall will post an article on an aspect of the event. Today’s feature is a profile on the 2012 Ottawa Fury W-League Soccer Team.

In 2012, the Ottawa Fury women’s soccer team at last won the crown befitting of one of the USL W-League’s most powerful clubs.

The Fury were renowned for their professional approach to amateur soccer. Inducted as a builder in the USL Women’s Hall of Fame, owner John Pugh provided meals, accommodations, athletic therapy and summer work opportunities for Fury players, along with good facilities and strong coaching.

The club provided a launching pad for over 60 players to compete on senior women’s national teams during its 14-season run in the nation’s capital.

During that time, the Fury recorded wins in three-quarters of their games and ties in another 10%. Ottawa collected 10 division titles (nine in a row from 2004-2012 and another in 2014), six conference championships (2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2014), and appeared in the W-League Final Four eight times (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014) and in the championship final four times (2005, 2006, 2011 and 2012).

But the big prize proved elusive. The Fury had reached the W-League championship game on three previous occasions before it won its storybook first title on its home field on July 29, 2012.

The 2005 and 2006 runner-up Fury teams were powered by more than 10 Team Canada players, including future stars such as Robyn Gayle, Diana Matheson, Carmelina Moscato, Marie-Ève Nault, Taryn Swiatek and Rhian Wilkinson.

In 2011, the Fury got back to the big game after completing its first-ever perfect regular season at 12-0. The Fury had conceded just seven goals in 15 games en route to the final before the Atlanta Silverbacks pounded them 6-1 in the final.

The Fury came back the next season to win their ninth consecutive central division regular season crown with a 10-2 record.

Ottawa had a direct berth in the final four as hosts of the W-League championship tournament at Algonquin College and earned a return trip to the final with a 1-0 victory over DC United in the semis.

After trailing California’s Pali Blues 1-0 for almost the entire championship game, the Fury’s Ashley Seal put home a rebound off a free-kick on what proved to be the final play of regulation to send the game to extra time.

After another 30 minutes of scoreless action, the stage was set for Ottawa to write the Hollywood finish against their opponents from L.A.

In goal for the Fury for the penalty-kicks shootout was team captain Jasmine Phillips, an Ottawa native who had played goalkeeper in the Fury’s youth system since age 13.

She was the club’s all-time leader in wins (26) and clean sheets (19), and her magnetic personality made her both a beloved teammate and coach for Fury youth players, who were all chanting her name from the stands.

Phillips wound up making two masterful penalty-kick stops to set the stage for Kelly Conheeney to blast home the winning kick in a 4-3 shootout before the hometown hero was mobbed by teammates and pupils alike.

“Jas has such an infectious personality. There’s not a person on this team or in this club that doesn’t love Jasmine,” Fury coach Dom Oliveri told Ottawa Sports Pages reporter Dan Plouffe. “Jasmine’s worked so hard for this for a number of years, she’s been so close a number of times, and now it’s happened for her.

“I’m hoping she decides to come back and play next year, but this might be her last game. What a way to finish for her.”

Ottawa Fury helped shape women’s soccer landscape in Ottawa & Canada

The 2012 W-League champion team was the Ottawa Fury’s most successful squad, but the club played a trailblazing role in the success of Ottawa and Canadian women’s soccer as a whole.

During a time when women’s professional soccer did not exist in Canada, the Fury provided a crucial training ground for many players who went on to help Canada achieve unprecedented success on the global soccer stage, including Olympic bronze medals in 2012 and 2016 and gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

The club brought in a handful of international players each season, including over two dozen who represented foreign countries at the senior international level.

Three dozen more wore the maple leaf at the senior level. Five former players helped Canada to its historic bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympics – Diana Matheson, Carmelina Moscato, Robyn Gayle, Rhian Wilkinson and all-time Fury leading scorer Kelly Parker.

Team Canada stalwarts Kadeisha Buchanan, Ashley Lawrence, Marie-Ève Nault and Shelina Zadorsky also wore Fury colours. Moscato, Gayle and Wilkinson are all Canada Soccer Hall of Famers.

Oliveri and Phillips continue on the tradition of developing top local talent as head and assistant coaches with the Carleton University Ravens.

Matheson, a key member of the 2005 and 2006 league-finalist squads, stands out as the most influential Fury product of them all.

On the field, she’ll always be remembered as the player who came up with the miracle goal that landed Team Canada on the podium at the London 2012 Olympic Games, following Canada’s infamous extra-time defeat to USA in the semi-finals.

Since retired, Matheson is now poised to make an even bigger impact off the field. One year before the full W-League shut down, the Fury and all the other Canadian W- League franchises folded in 2014, leaving a large hole for elite women’s soccer domestically.

But Matheson led the charge as co-founder of the first Canadian professional women’s soccer league, which kicked off last week in Vancouver and Toronto.

Ottawa Rapid FC is also set to debut as one of the original six members of the Northern Super League on Sunday, April 27 at TD Place.

“We would have liked to have a league in place earlier, but it’s a great next step forward for the country,” Oliveri told the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Emma Zhao when Rapid FC was unveiled.

“If anybody is going to succeed in this, it’s going to be Diana. And it’s really great to see someone like her, who’s played through all the levels, represented this country in the Olympics, taking the lead on this. She’s been there and she sees what it takes to have a professional league.”

Original Ottawa Fury player and Ottawa Sport Hall of Famer Kristina Kiss (Class of 2015) is now serving as the Rapid’s technical director a quarter-century later, continuing to build on the platform the Fury once set.

Team Roster: Gillian Baggott, Audrey Bernier-Larose, Breanna Burton, Melissa Busque, Kelly Conheeney, Emily Dowd, Marissa Duguay, Melisa Erturk, Katrina Gorry, Lydia Hastings, Jessica Hopton, Lauren Hughes, Leni Kaurin, Cynthia Leblanc, Abbey Lindblad, Courtney Maitland, Mallory Outerbridge, Jasmine Phillips, Casey Ramirez, Brittiny Rhoades, Kortney Rhoades, Tina Romagnuolo, Katie Ryan, Ashley Seal, Jessica Shufelt, Havana Solaun, Megan Verdeur, Courtney Wetzel, Kathryn Williamson, Lisa-Marie Woods, John Pugh (owner & CEO), Dom Oliveri (head coach), Julia Prystupa (team manager), Mel Fiala (athletic therapist), Kwesi Loney (assistant coach) and David Bellemare (goalkeeper coach).

MAY 28 OTTAWA SPORT HALL OF FAME INDUCTION EVENING

Tickets for the Wednesday, May 28th Induction Ceremony are now sold out!

In the lead-up to the banquet, full-length features on each of the inductees and honoured teams will be posted on the Hall’s website at OttawaSportHall.ca and shared through the Ottawa Sports Pages.

Sponsorship opportunities are still available. See OttawaSportHall.ca/Sponsorship for more details.

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Contact:

Dave Best
Chair, Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame
Chair@OttawaSportHall.ca

About the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame:

The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization, which documents, curates and celebrates outstanding achievement in local sport heritage. The Sport Hall is overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors to maintain and preserve our rich sporting legacies. Each year, the Hall of Fame Board receives nominations from the public and selects new inductees to be honoured in the Hall.