So much of the last two years has been a blur for so many – a global pandemic can do that, after all – but Jim Zinko can precisely detail the last time the Valour FC Elite Girls program was on the pitch for a real match.

“It’s been so tough,” began Zinko, the club’s head coach. “It was two years ago February that we last competed as a program at the Shattuck-St. Mary’s Showcase. And our older girls, the U-17 team, all 16 of them went on to play university soccer. At the time I remember telling them, ‘I believe you have played the best and most-complete soccer in the history of our program, and I cannot wait to see what you are going to do in Vancouver.’ And then everything got shut down.

“I would have loved to have seen what that group would have done at the Vancouver Showcase because I know it would have been really impressive.”

The Valour FC Elite Girls program will be back in action at the Premier Spring Showcase in Vancouver on April 15-17 – their first showcase in over two years – and the long wait in between has been difficult on many levels.

“It’s been a really weird time for us,” said Zinko. “Normally we would have been in San Diego for a showcase on American Thanksgiving, but last November we couldn’t travel anywhere. We were scheduled to return to the Shattuck-St. Mary’s Showcase in Minnesota, the logisitics of getting tested down there and getting results back while playing two games a day were impossible and so we had to duck out of that event.

“And the Vancouver showcase has traditionally been our wrap-up event and we usually do well there because we already had the other showcases as experience.

“All of this means we’re going into it with a different mindset than we have in the past.”

Rowan Peek discuss the hard work being placed on and off the field as we get closer to our first showcase of the season! #2023grad #studentathlete pic.twitter.com/5fCTZbUixl

— Valour FC Elite Girls (@ValourFCElite) March 21, 2022

The showcases are critically important for the Valour FC Elite U-16 and U-17 program, which exists to help players land college scholarships in Canada and the United States.

The program is very proactive in helping both the girls and the college coaches get introduced. Zinko and team manager Trevor Kidd are in contact with coaches looking for specific players who might need positional needs, but they also push their players to do their own information gathering and reach out to colleges themselves.

“We teach families about the recruiting process and determining their own path,” Zinko said. “Where are the places they think they want to go? Research the schools that make sense to you. Some girls don’t want to stay in Manitoba and want to head south. Others want a certain school that is closer to home or they have certain academic specialties that we maybe don’t have at U of M or U of W.

“We teach them how to reach out to the coaching staffs there and stay in contact. The reason we do that is that at a Showcase event there are lots of games going on at once, and if you’re a college coach why would you pick one field to go watch over another if you don’t know anybody? Why recruit a set of kids who might not have an interest in your school? We try to make sure coaches are aware of players who are interested in their programs and that our players reach out to them and make them aware of our schedule.

“That’s what our program tries to do differently, and we hear a lot of positive feedback on that from coaches around the country and in the U.S. – they appreciate the girls put in the work and effort, that they reach out and continue to reach out and show they have a true interest in their school and not just playing on the soccer team. It’s a huge part of what we do. And we hear back from parents on this, too, that it is obvious how much the program has helped their daughter mature and that she is taking her studies much more seriously.”

The Valour FC Elite Girls will bring 33 players from the U-16 and U-17 programs to the Premier Spring Showcase. And while the event might not lead to on-the-spot college offers, it can help open eyes and get information and contact traffic flowing again – especially after two years of exclusively training and practising but with no matches.

“It’s been a long, long time,” said Zinko. “(Getting girls scholarships) is the only reason we exist. All we’re trying to do is get our girls from Manitoba the chance to spread their wings and get to the places they want to get to. That was the impetus for the start of this program. We’re close to 110 girls now who have gone through our program and have committed to university.

“It will be a bit emotional seeing the girls playing again.”