Rob Jonas - Founder of VanIsle Walking Soccer
Well, in late 2015, I became the President of a Vancouver Island group called PGOSA, which is the Parksville Golden Oldies Sports Association, the largest sporting association in Central Vancouver Island.
As I was getting my feet wet, a couple of my members of English heritage came up to me and asked me if I'd heard about this new sport that was booming in England and called “Walking Football”. And no, I had not. So we looked into it and I started our first session in March of 2016. We had eight players. It was a bit of a go and we phoned around, did some searching online and whatnot, that's how we got started. That was almost exactly 8 years ago.
On how he would describe himself as a player and an organizer…
Well, I had never actually played organized soccer before this opportunity arose. But, like I said, stepping into the role of
President of PGOSA, exposed me to lots of different opportunities including Walking Soccer. And now, with seven years behind us, there's no stopping us now.
We've just held our 4th Provincial Invitational Tournament. We're getting some community sponsorship. Teams are coming from the provincial mainland, southern Vancouver Island. It's just booming like crazy.