Heat soccer add Surrey United’s Foulger to 2016’s men’s side

KELOWNA, BC -- Liam Foulger, a 6’2” Vancouver centre-back comes to the Heat with a soccer resume that includes more than half a decade of high-level competitive play, as well as an appearance with a Provincial side.

Liam, out of Prince of Wales Mini School and the Surrey United program, began his soccer career in the USL Super-Y league, as a member of Coastal FC’s U12 club. Next up for him was a three-year stint with Mountain United FC of the BC Soccer Premier League.

In his first year with the club, he was a semi-finalist in the BC Provincial Premier Championship as a member of the U14 side. In 2013, with the U15 side, Liam was named a Player of Distinction for the tournament after he and his teammates were finalists in the Provincial tournament.

In 2014, his final year with Mountain United, Foulger was named Team Captain of the U16 side. He led his team to another Provincial tournament appearance, once again making it as far as the semi-finals.

2014 was also the year in which Foulger was named a member of BC Soccer’s Provincial Team, competing with the program’s U16 side.

Since his time with the Provincial Team, Liam has been a member of Surrey United FC. In 2015, his first season with the team, he and his U17 teammates were finalists in the U18 Provincial Premier Championships, and were champions of the Super Group at that year’s U19 Nike Crossfire Challenge. They demolished their finals’ opponents, Snohomish United B97 Black, by a final tally of 7-0 in the championship match.

In his final season before joining the Heat, Foulger was once again a member of a Provincial finalist team, as his U18 Surrey United side advanced to the 2016 Provincial Premier Championship.

“I’m super grateful and excited for the opportunity at UBCO,” said Foulger after having signed with the Heat. “[I] look forward to making a positive impact on the team.”

Coming to UBC Okanagan to study Human Kinetics, Liam says the academic side of his college career was as big a factor in the decision as athletics. Foulger says that he chose UBCO “because it was a good fit academically, one of the top schools in the country with programs I wanted, and athletically because there is a great coach with a good team bringing in lots of quality players.”

Dante Zanatta and his coaching staff were pleased that they were able to attract a talent such as Foulger late in the recruiting season, the coaching staff were specifically looking to replace the graduated fifth year centre-back, Harrison Shrimpton, and very pleased with Foulger's decision to come to UBC Okanagan.

"Liam is very good in the air, is able to play at either side of the CB [centre-back] pairing and has the ability to play a good exit pass out of the back, with his addition this position will have a great battle in pre season to see who steps up for a stating spot, Tom and I look forward in working with Liam over the next four to five years," Zanatta said about the Surrey United product.

Foulger and Nikhil Reddy are joining a number of high school signees on the roster for this fall will be: Christian Taylor (Mid, Courtenay, BC), Zachery Rachinski (F, Kamloops, BC), Wyatt Gilbert (W, Langley, BC), and two from Kelowna in keeper Nicholas Reitsma and left-back Spencer Young.

An early first look at the Heat as the Canada West men's soccer schedule gets started in August this year. The Heat men's squad open up at home on the Nonis Sports Field on the UBC Okanagan campus with matches on Saturday (Aug. 27) against the University of Victoria and then on Sunday (Aug. 28) versus UBC. Both matches start at 3 p.m.