Tsawwassen Soccer standout Olivia Sheppard has been named to the inaugural roster for Western Canada's first Regional Excel Centre (REX).
The Grade 11 student at South Delta secondary was one of five full-time players with the Whitecaps Elite Girls Program to be selected. Sheppard came through the Tsawwassen Soccer Club's grassroots program before playing at the Metro level and eventually Coastal F.C. of the B.C. Premier Soccer League. The defender also has been part of B.C. Soccer's High Performance Program before being named to the Whitecaps roster last summer.
In her Grade 10 year at SDSS, Sheppard helped the Sun Devils reach the provincial AAA championship game last May.
As part of the Canada Soccer Pathway, Whitecaps FC Girls Elite has merged with the REX program in Vancouver to maintain a standardized national curriculum for female players U-13 to U-18, feeding into Canada Soccer's Women's National EXCEL Program. The National EXCEL Program is a six-year structure for developing female players U14 to U20 who demonstrate the highest level of ability in preparation for their contribution to Canada's Women's National Team. The REX program will be led by Whitecaps Elite Girls head coach Jesse Symons, with support from BC Soccer.
"This is a very talented group of young players that we've assembled for our inaugural REX roster," said Symons. "We're very excited to work with each of these players as they continue to develop along the Canada Soccer Pathway."
Full-time players from the Whitecaps Girls Elite team also joining the REX program include: Simmrin Dhaliwal (Mountain United FC) (Coastal FC); midfielders Jenna Baxter (Surrey United SC) and Rachel Jones (Mountain United FC), and midfielder/striker Ashley Burgess (Coastal FC).
The remainder of the roster features: goalkeepers Abigail Hunt (Surrey United SC) and Faith O'Neill (Mountain United FC); defenders Bryana Buttar (Fraser Valley Premier), Sophie Damien (Mountain United FC), and Reese Moffatt (Surrey United SC)Emma Hooton (Mountain United FC), Kassie Kirlik (Surrey United SC), Danielle Mosher (Fusion FC), and Cecilia Way (Vancouver Island Wave); midfielders Ebony Clarke (Surrey United SC), Julia Grosso (Mountain United FC), and Caitlin Shaw (Coquitlam Metro-Ford SC); and strikers Sagen Brar (Coastal FC), Camila Gomez-Hernandez (Mountain United FC), Jordyn Huitema (Surrey United SC), Shanya Dhindsa (Coastal FC) and Emma Regan (Mountain United FC).
