COACHING STAFF
John Hemmerling – U13 Girls
John grew up playing soccer in Burnaby. He has three children active in soccer and has been coaching in Kelowna since shortly after moving to the Okanagan in 1998. Along the way John has attended and participated in various coaching clinics up to and including his Provincial Pre-B License.
Last season John coached the Thompson Okanagan Whitecaps U13 Y League girls to a successful season and over the summer coached the Thompson Okanagan U12 Girls to a B.C. Summer Games gold medal. From time to time John can be found instructing at various soccer schools in the Kelowna area.
Email: jhemmerling@okanaganwfc.com
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Jim Kruiper – U14 Girls
Jim Kruiper has been passionately involved with the game of soccer for most of his life. Jim is well known to the Okanagan soccer community as one of its best ever players. He has played soccer for over 40 years and is also a certified BCSA referee. He is one of the founding members of Lake Country Soccer Club and was previously a board member for the Lake Country Youth Soccer Association.
As a coach, Jim brings a wealth of experience from being a player-coach for several competitive men’s teams in Calgary, Kamloops and Kelowna to coaching his son and daughter as they played soccer on their way through the youth system. Jim has taken numerous coaching courses throughout his playing career. He intends to bring his enthusiasm for the game to assist in the development of the technical skills and abilities of his players. Jim was born and raised in Kelowna and has lived in Lake Country for the past 12 years with his wife and four children.
Email: jkruiper@okanaganwfc.com
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Rob Jones – U15 Girls
Rob joins the Super Y coaching staff after recently moving from Sherwood Park, Alberta where he has coached for the Sherwood Park Rangers Soccer Club since 2001. After playing for 22 years and refereeing for 12 years, Rob turned his attention to coaching and has since coached both Girls and Boys teams for the Rangers. Constantly trying to find better, more effective ways to coach young athletes, Rob encourages coaches to work together in order to continually learn from each other’s successes (and failures). From the players perspective he expects a lot from them. Helps them get to the next level and pushes them to be better players. He has a lot of patience and gets a lot out of seeing the players develop. As a coach, Rob has obtained his provincial B License, taken several Ranger teams to the provincials, Co-coached the Black Gold team to a gold medal at the Alberta Summer games and has had several players accepted into the provincial training programs. After coaching for the Edmonton Clippers in its only year in the Super Y league, Jones is excited about being back in the Y league and looking forward to coaching the U-15 Girls.
Email: rjones@okanaganwfc.com
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Steven Bergg – U16 Girls
Steven was born in Germany and raised in England. He played soccer, cricket and rugby as an amateur until the age of 20 and then joined the British Royal Marines. While in the Marines Steve took up coaching. In 1992 he immigrated to Canada where he began coaching Youth Soccer.
Steven has coached all age levels of youth soccer, but for the last three years was focused primarily on the Inter 1993 girl’s squad in Edmonton. The team enjoyed success in their league, Provincial Tier 1 tournaments and other competitions in Canada and the USA. While at Inter, Steven studied under Canadian National Coach Ross Ongaro at the Pro-Start Academy. By incorporating the lessons Ross taught him, his team went from middle of the table with no Provincial level players, to Provincial Champions with several players on the Alberta squad.
Steven is scheduled to complete his Provincial B-License in November. He has completed all other levels of provincial courses in Alberta including his Pre-B and several private courses in both Canada and England.
Email: sbergg@okanaganwfc.com
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Neil McPhie – U13 Boys
Neil was raised in the Lower Mainland and spent 17 years coaching senior men’s and women’s teams in Vancouver Metro Leagues. He moved to the Okanagan in 1999 and has spent the last 5 years coaching youth and boys development soccer in Vernon. He was also the 2008 BC Summer Games U12 Head Coach for TOYSL.
Neil obtained his Technical Coaching certificate back in the early 80’s and recently upgraded to CCS. He plans to move to B License certification this fall/winter.
Neil is still an active player and is currently playing in the Over 45’s Okanagan League. He has played the game for 40+ years and has playing experience at a high level in Burnaby, New Westminster, and Vernon.
Email: nmcphie@okanaganwfc.com
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Andy Stevenson – U14 Boys
Andy Stevenson was born in London, England. He played soccer extensively at youth and amateur levels in England, Wales and Spain until his mid thirties. Andy has been coaching children’s soccer for ten years and came to Canada in 2006. He became involved with youth soccer in Kelowna at 'House' and district levels with children of all ages. In 2007 he held the Head Coach position at Okanagan Mission Youth Soccer Association. Andy is qualified at Community Coach Senior level and currently waiting to be assessed for Provincial B License. He had a great season with the Super Y League U13 boys in 2008 and is looking forward to building on that in 2009.
Email: astevenson@okanaganwfc.com
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Al Ryder – U15 Boys
Al began coaching at the age of 13 with an under 9 softball team and through the years has coached hockey teams including Bantam AAA to a 3rd place finish in the BC Provincial Championships. From 1995 until 2001 he coached soccer in Sherwood Park, Alberta and then relocated to Kelowna. In 2001-2002 he served as the Head Coach of Rutland Youth Soccer Association until becoming their Chairman and then the Chairman for COYSA. Al has coached Select soccer in Kelowna since 2003 including 3 TOYSL Champions, 2 Interior Champions and 2 third place finishes in the BC provincial Cup. In 2007 and 2008 Al coached the U14 Boys Super Y League teams. Al holds his Pre B Coaching license.
Email: aryder@okanaganwfc.com
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Jason Thompson – U16 Boys
Jason has been playing soccer since the age of 6. He played metro level soccer from U13 to U18 going to club nationals twice at the age of U14 and U16 and finishing first at U14 and third at U16. He also played and captained the BC Provincial team at U15, U17 and U19 levels winning the national title in all three years. He was a carded National Athlete and trained at the National Training Centre from the age of 14 to 22 and was a member of the U20 Canadian National team that went to Concacaf qualifying in Honduras. As an adult he played in the Vancouver Men’s Premier League, the Pacific Coast League as well as the PDL, going to Nationals once with the Metro Ford Wolves and finishing second.
Jason coached U13 to U16 metro boys for the Metro Ford Soccer Club. Since moving to the Okanagan he has coached at Kelowna United for two years going to the Provincial Cup finishing second in both years. Jason is entering his third year as a Super Y League coach. He currently holds a Provincial Pre B Licence.
Email: jthompson@okanaganwfc.com
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Geoff Greenwell is well known to the Okanagan soccer community, as he is the chairman of Lake Country Soccer Club, and league administrator for the Okanagan Valley Over-35 Men's League. He is also a BCSA referee and referee assessor. Greenwell was born in the UK and moved to Canada in 1992 after years working in the Middle East and Africa in the global energy business. Geoff works as a strategic planner/ facilitator for Fortune 500 companies, governments, and First Nations. He‘s played the game for over 40 years and is a passionate advocate of the sport.
A former Canadian international, and an original member of the Whitecaps, Bennett has over twenty years of coaching experience, with many years at the international level. This includes over 12 years with the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) as an assistant to the U-20 men's national team, an interim coach of the senior national team, and 11 years as a coach at the CSA High Performance Centre.