When Vancouver Football Club hits the field, be it for practice or a home or away game, Amelia Ng is right there with them.
While she’s not one of the extension team’s pro soccer players – although that was her dream since she started playing organized sports in Grade 4 – she is still an integral part of the team, helping look after the players, medically.
She’s the head athletic therapist with the Langley-based team, and she will be leading VFC onto the field for Saturday’s home game at Willoughby Stadium, for the team’s Pride-themed match.
Vancouver FC takes on its provincial rival, Pacific FC, for the final derby match at 1 p.m. And like many of their home games, this one has a theme. This game celebrates the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
Ng, 33, isn’t certain, but said it’s possible she’s the only “out” member of the VFC to identify as gay, noting she’s been out since 2012.
“I’m out to everyone around me,” she told the Langley Advance Times.
She started with VFC in March, when the team was being formed. Initially, she was approached to help out, just temporarily during pre-season, with the medical staff – since she already had a full-time gig coaching with the North Shore Girls Soccer Club.
The temporary position with VFC quickly morphed into a permanent position, with Ng now doing both.
“I got a little bit lucky there. Not every athletic therapist gets to work their chosen sport,” Ng noted, explaining that she grew up playing soccer, played varsity, coached college/university, now is tech lead for the North Shore group, and works with the VFC athletes.
Ng’s passion for soccer makes this job a perfect fit.
“It was professional sports in a sport that I love, and it was right in my backyard… it’s always where I wanted to be, the competitive edge of the sport… it’s where I feel I belong, for sure.”
In addition to her work in the soccer field, Ng also volunteers with the Queer Van Soccer league to help organize the summer soccer beginners program, as well as plays as a participant herself. Their 2023 season was sold out and she is helping to acquire field space for the fall program.
Asked what drew her to this sport initially, Ng reflected back to her childhood.
Sports were not originally a part of her world as a young kid who immigrated from Hong Kong to Winnipeg. She’d kick a ball around on the field during recess with some of the other kids, but there was no structured athletic endeavours. That was until her family relocated to Richmond and she was given her first taste of organized sports.
She saw soccer as a way for that shy immigrant kid to socialize and “make friends.” She enjoyed it. she did well at it, and she chose to pursue it.
She still plays for fun, but not at a serious competitive level. Having suffered too many concussions and other injuries through the years, Ng explained that’s where her second passion comes from – on the medical side of the sport.
“I’ve had so many injuries during my life that I’ve been very fascinated about the human body and how it recovers and how you can help yourself prevent injuries,” that she opted to pursue it as a career and is now anxious to share what she’s learned with other athletes.
“I have accepted that my playing career has passed, except at the recreational level. But I’m very happy where I am, on the sidelines for a professional team, and head coaching a high performance youth team, and assistant coaching a premiere women’s team, and I’m a tech lead of a club. My hands are full with the game, I don’t need anything more.”
Not only does she get to work in a sport she’s passionate about, and in a town so close to her new Surrey home. She get’s to work in what she describes as an “incredibly accepting” environment.
“Our club, we definitely very inclusive and support diversity… You can see it not only in the cultures that are in our club and our players, but in our coaching staff and our support staff,” she said, noting how societal acceptance levels have also change significantly in the past 10 to 15 years.
“Having this is like actually saying ‘we’re behind you’ and it hasn’t been easy, I have to say – not with this club, but – overall. But it’s nice to know that I can be open about myself with a club that’s not going to discriminate against me. I think because I am openly out, and because I am proud of who I am, and I’m not afraid to be who I am, the club wants me to speak out about it and support the cause, as well. And I think that’s very important.”
Ng elaborated: “I’m a Chinese immigrant, that’s working in the male-dominated world of sports, and I’m also gay… My goal in sharing my story is the hope that anyone who can relate to me in any way and can understand that ‘you can do this, too’… these are not roadblocks… It’s all possible.”
The pride match gets underway at 1 p.m. today at Willoughby Stadium, with Vancouver taking on Vancouver Island’s Pacific FC.
RELATED WITH VIDEO: A hard-fought loss for Vancouver FC against Halifax
Both teams are coming off a loss, with VFC falling 0-3 against Halifax Wanderers FC last week, and will be looking to change their momentum in this intense derby match. Vancouver will also be looking to register yet another historic match against Pacific - after setting a new CPL record for most total goals (9) in their last contest – this time by securing their first points against the Island-side.
READ MORE: Today’s soccer game pays tribute to trailblazing women in sports
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