Blue Devils Football Club (formerly known as Oakville Blue Devils FC) is a semi-professional soccer club based in

Oakville, Ontario Oakville is a town in Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Lake Ontario between Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton. At its Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census population of 213,759, it is List of tow ...

. The senior men's and women's teams currently compete in

League1 Ontario League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional men's soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The league began play in 2014 and is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association as a pro-am league in the Canadian so ...

men's and women's divisions.

History

Past teams of same name

The original Oakville Blue Devils was a member team of the Oakville Soccer Club. The team was built, coached and developed by Phil Iafrati (1947–2013), where they won the U19 provincial and national championships in 1998. As the Devils reached the end of the youth soccer circuit that season, Iafrati restarted the program with the a U9 program Oakville Blue Stars in 1999. In 2005, the second edition of the Blue Devils were formed when the Scarborough-based

Metro Lions Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

of the Canadian Professional Soccer League relocated to Oakville and adopted the Blue Devils name, coached by

Duncan Wilde Duncan Wilde is an English soccer manager who is currently the manager of Blue Devils FC in League1 Ontario. Managerial career On May 15, 2003 at the Canadian Professional Soccer League press conference the Hamilton Thunder announced Wilde as th ...

. They won the 2005 season defeating

Vaughan Shooters Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...

in the final. In 2006, Wilde left to manage the

Toronto Lynx Toronto Lynx was a Canadian soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1997, the team last played in the 2014 season of the Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Great Lakes ...

, which resulted in a mass exodus of players not returning. The club was relocated in 2007 and became

Brampton United Brampton City United FC is a Canadian soccer team, founded in 2002. The team plays in the Lika Supergroup Open Division. The club plays out of Victoria Park Stadium in the community of Brampton, Ontario. The Metro Lions were the second club from ...

, bringing to an end the period of the Oakville Blue Devils history.

Revival

In 2015, the club was founded to play in the semi-professional

, named after the original team from prior years. The

men's senior team was incorporated into the Oakville team and in late 2017, the teams merged completely under Oakville's umbrella. In their inaugural L1O season, they were crowned league champions and qualified for the

Inter-Provincial Cup The Inter-Provincial Cup is a limited-overs cricket tournament in Ireland between the four leading cricketing provinces of Ireland. The tournament was held for the first time in 2013 across venues in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ir ...

against the champion of the

Première Ligue de soccer du Québec The Première ligue de soccer du Québec (PLSQ) is a semi-professional soccer league created in 2012. The Quebec Soccer Federation operates both men's and women's divisions at the pro-am tier of the Canadian soccer league system. The league is pa ...

to determine the Canadian Division III champion, where they defeated

CS Mont-Royal Outremont Club Soccer Mont-Royal Outremont is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in the Montreal boroughs of Mount Royal and Outremont. Since 2013, the club has competed in the Première ligue de soccer du Québec. Their women's team has compet ...

to win the title. In 2017, they won their second title, defeating

Woodbridge Strikers Woodbridge Strikers Soccer Club is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Woodbridge, Ontario. The club was founded in 1976 as a youth soccer club and added its semi-professional club in League1 Ontario in 2014. The team plays home ga ...

in the Championship final on penalty kicks. In 2018, the team played in the

Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship (french: Championnat canadien) is an annual soccer tournament contested by premier Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and Canada's berth in the CONCACAF Champions League. It is contest ...

for the first time where they lost in the first qualifying round against 2017 PLSQ champion

AS Blainville Association de Soccer de Blainville, commonly referred to as A.S. Blainville, is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in the Montreal suburb of Blainville, Quebec, that plays in the Première ligue de soccer du Québec. They are the onl ...

. Later, during the 2018 season, they played a friendly against Italian professional

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club

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, losing by a score of 2–0. Also in 2018, the club added a team in the women's division of League1 Ontario, beginning in the 2018 season. In their second season, the women advanced to the Championship Final, where they were defeated by

FC London FC London is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in London, Ontario. The club was founded in 2008 and plays in the League1 Ontario men's and women's divisions. The team plays home games at the Portuguese Club of London and the Hellen ...

. In 2021, the women once again finished as runner-ups after being defeated in the finals by the

. In 2020, the club merged with GPS Academy and was renamed to Blue Devils FC. The men finished as runner-ups in both 2021 and 2022, being defeated in the Championship Finals by

Guelph United FC Guelph United Football Club is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Guelph, Ontario that plays in League1 Ontario. The women's team is known as Guelph Union and competes in the League1 Ontario women's division. Both teams play at t ...

and

Vaughan Azzurri Vaughan Azzurri is a Canadian semi-professional soccer team based in Vaughan, Ontario, that currently competes in the League1 Ontario men's and women's divisions. The semi-professional team was founded in 2014 by the Vaughan Soccer Club, which ...

, respectively.

Front office and technical Staff

Seasons

Honours

* League1 Ontario Championship: 2015, 2017 *

: 2015

Notable players

The following players have either played at the professional or international level, either before or after playing for the League1 Ontario team:

Men

Women

References

External links

* {{Toronto Sports Association football clubs established in 2015 Soccer clubs in Ontario League1 Ontario teams 2015 establishments in Ontario Oakville, Ontario