Bob Marquis was involved with soccer from the age of 18.  Bob played for the New Brunswick Provincial Team.

In the early 1970's, Bob moved to Newmarket and began over 30 years of service at the Newmarket Soccer Club.  Bob began coaching in 1977 for his son's team.  This team included a former Toronto FC player, Jim Brennan, and Bob still has the soccer ball with Jim's name on it.  Bob wore many hats with the Newmarket Soccer Club:  coach, convenor, Director, Head Referee, Tournament Coordinator, Tournament Referee Coordinator, Executive Board Member and Director of Discipline to name a few.  Through some of the tournament work that Bob spearheaded, teams came from as far as Bermuda to participate. 

In 1982 Bob began refereeing at the Newmarket Soccer Club. Eventually he began assessing and mentoring in the Newmarket Soccer Club community.  Bob was instrumental in mentoring the young referees in Newmarket, building the pool of referees for the club. 

Prior to the District office staff assigning referees to games within the District, the Referee's association performed all the tasks of assigning.  Along with Carolyn Jones, Bob was a part of the committee that assigned the referees for leagues and Ontario Cup games across York Region. 

Bob was a Director at Large and eventually Vice President, of the York Region Soccer Referee Association. Bob initiated the mentoring and assessment program at the YRSRA during his tenure. Bob was also a key part of writing the Constitution for the YRSRA.

Today Bob has reached the heights of Provincial Referee Assessor.  For these reasons, Bob Marquis is seen as having a positive and lasting impact on the game of soccer in York Region.

Rick Singh started playing semi-professional soccer for the Guyana Army. When he immigrated to Canada, he moved into coaching. He coached his two boys in the Armourdale Soccer Club recreational division and won the division cup in 1982 and 1986. He continued the tradition by coaching his grandchildren in the Richmond Hill Soccer Club recreational league.

Rick found his true calling in soccer when he became a referee. He started at a young age and became a District Referee in 1982.  When he moved his family to Richmond Hill in 1988 he became the Richmond Hill Soccer Club Head Referee; a position he still holds today.  In 1998 he became a District Referee Instructor and actively instructs courses each year in York Region.  He is an inspirational instructor who brings passion to the game leaving young referees with a zeal for the game of soccer.

In 2013 Rick became the York Region Association Registrar and York Region Referee Association Director of the Mentor programme. This is a very important position that fosters and encourages promotion of referees to take on more responsibilities and referee for district, provincial and national games.

Rick's strength and what he brings to the Richmond Hill Soccer Club and to York Region is his passion for refereeing the game of soccer. He works tirelessly, year round, mentoring young referees to bring out the best in them.

Rich has been an integral member of the Richmond Hill Soccer Club family and led him to be nominated and awarded the OSA Centre Circle Meritorious Award in 2013. 

Bernie Salter immigrated to Canada in 1957 from Bexley, England. He married and moved to Newmarket, ON in 1978 to raise his two young children.  Bernie became involved in the Newmarket Youth Soccer Club in 1981 as an Assistant Coach for his 9 year old son's team.

Bernie also became the Head Coach of the Newmarket Wanderers, an adult competitive team. The team, now known as the Newmarket Rovers, went on to win league and cup titles that were never experienced before.  He decided to become more involved in the sport as a referee for the York Region Soccer Association.

His love for his community was recognized when he was awarded Newmarket's Citizen of the Year in 1991.

Bernie served on the Newmarket Soccer Club Board of Directors for 10 years in various capacities. He was the originator of Soccerfest, a house league tournament that is a legacy to the club attracting approximately 6,000 attendees in town annually. Bernie continued his passion for the game throughout the years and officially retired in 2006 as a player scout for the club.

Bernie's love and passion of the game and community is evidenced in the legacy he leaves behind!   

Danny Pellegrini is one of Vaughan Soccer Club's most outstanding members in the past 20 years.

His involvement with the club stated at the grassroots level in 1996 where he spent two years as a house league coach learning the intricacies of house league parents and players. He learned the importance of giving volunteers the proper tools and support to help them teach the youth of our community to reach their full potential not only as soccer players but has human beings.

Two years later, Danny decided that he needed a bigger challenge and he moved into the competitive world of soccer. At this level, he spent another 8 years coaching girls' competitive soccer. He also learned the importance of respecting players, parent and officials. He learned the importance of communicating with every stakeholder so that the game of soccer could advance into more prominence.

At this time he started seeing that the club was in need of fresh ideas to help the club promote and deliver the game of soccer to the youth in our community in a more collaborative model within the club, league and soccer organizations.

This is when he made the decision to join and devote his energy to the Vaughan Soccer Club Board of Directors as Tournament Director. After 6 years of successfully organizing tournaments and learning the workings of the Board, he took on the more challenging position of Vice President of Girls Competitive.

In 2009, Danny was elected President of the Vaughan Soccer Club and he immediately started to work on improving the image of the club. He spearheaded the push for the club to receive the OSA Club Excellence Award which acknowledges the highest standard of Governance, Technical and Community Outreach.

In addition, he was instrumental to the success of Vaughan Soccer Club receiving an Ontario Player Development League license. The OPDL is Canada's first standards based youth high performance soccer league that combines top level competition with strict high performance training standards.

Danny Pellegrini's leadership over the years has been invaluable to the growth and success of the Vaughan Soccer Club. 

Sam Rietta is a co-founding father of the Woodbridge Soccer Club which began operations in the summer of 1976 with 17 members.  Today, the Woodbridge Soccer Club is a pillar of our community with a membership of approximately 4,000 providing soccer programmes and leagues to both youth and adult players in recreational and competitive divisions.

Sam was involved in the game of soccer as a coach and a builder for almost 50 years from the time he arrived from Italy in 1953 until he passed away in 2002.

He started the West Woodbridge Soccer Club, now known as the Woodbridge Soccer Club in 1976. At that time there was only one competitive boys team, which his son Mike assisted him with by bringing in players from his own high school to play for this team.

Sam Rietta became the First President of the Woodbridge Soccer Club and implemented the club's recreational division and many more competitive teams as he recruited volunteers to become involved with the operation of the club.

Still part of the club in the 1990's he began to realize his hard work and dedication as the club was very successful in capturing Ontario Cup and National Cup titles.

Sam Rietta's contribution has done a great service to the community of Woodbridge and even greater contribution to the soccer community in this great province of ours.