Dr. David Clay, who works at the Kimberley Medical Clinic, just returned from his fifth year competing with the Canadian Men's Medical Football Team, this time on Australia's Sunshine Coast.
Clay has been with the team since 2018, when he met team founder Dr. Paul Dhillon, who was visiting Kimberley to look into working at the Kimberley Clinic.
"We got chatting and discovered our mutual passion for what I call football — known as soccer in North America."
The team was originally formed in 2016. Clay first played on the Men's Open team in 2018 in Prague and 2019 in Mexico before moving up to the over-45 Vogel division in 2022 for the tournament in Argentina.
Clay said all the trips have been incredible experiences in their own unique ways, opportunities to make connections with fellow physicians and benefiting him on personal and professional levels.
"Many of the physicians return year on year and this creates a real sense of belonging to a community of soccer playing physicians," Clay said. "There is very good continued medical eduction providing both opportunity to present to, and learn from, international colleagues. Both the formal education and informal side line discussions have been highly valued by myself."
His was one of three teams that went to Australia to compete. For the first time this year a women's team went, and they wound up finishing in second, which Clay remarked is phenomenal for a first appearance.
Clay's team, playing in seven-per-side competition, finished with four wins, one draw and one defeat in six games: their best performance in terms of results in the six years they've had a Vogel team.
On the 2024 tournament website, wmfc2024.com, the event's intention is "Uniting the world in sports, science and peace."
In addition to the tournament, which featured teams from 19 countries, the event also features an academic symposium focused on sport and medicine, and also supports a charity.
This year the tournament supported Pushing Barriers, an Australian non-profit dedicated to advancing the lives and welfare of refugee youth. The organization strives to integrate these youth into Australian society through sport.
"We are immensely proud of our teams' performances and their commitment to excellence both on and off the field," said Dr. Paul Dhillon, Chief Football Officer of the organization. "Our collaboration with Pushing Barriers underscores our belief in the power of sport to bring about positive change and inclusion. It was an honour to support such a noble cause while representing Canada overseas."
Supporting Pushing Barriers was one of the highlights of Clay's trip, he said. This year, they raised over $7000 for the organization.
"We met at a local soccer club and had a very enjoyable and rewarding evening getting to know the volunteers and some of the youth they support," Clay said. "I spoke to a few of the youth who had obviously experienced a lot of challenges in their lives. Pushing Barriers really facilitated the opportunity for these youth to integrate into the local community and gain that all so important social connection."
He added they were able to play a quick 11-a-side game with the Pushing Barriers youth team, which he said was a great experience, with the match ending in 2-1 loss for the Canadians, with Pushing Barriers getting the game winner on the last kick of the game.
"As soon as we stepped on the pitch with these youth, any remaining hesitancy to engage disappeared and this to me is what participating in a team sport at any level is about, that social connection it facilitates," Clay said.
"In terms of the support it involves funding for club fees, equipment and help with drivers taking them to and from practice and games."
Clay said the academic symposium was also very good this year, with high quality presentations from physicians from multiple countries including Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland and the U.S.
"As always it helped consolidate and raise knowledge," Clay said. "I particularly enjoyed a Canadian presentation on the importance of play as a means to maintain physical health. Essentially what better way to improve/maintain physical fitness than participate in a team sport that you enjoy. Studies show that as we age, there is a significant drop off in numbers who participate in a team sport."
Clay grew up in the U.K. and played soccer since he was in elementary school, then playing in leagues until the age of 24, when junior doctor training halted his participation. He picked it back up when he moved to Kimberley in 2007. He said there's currently no league for his age group, so he plays drop-in soccer with the over-35 group in Cranbrook.
"To myself, one of the main benefits of playing on this team is the continued need to stay physically fit," Clay said. "Soccer requires both good cardiovascular fitness and a lot of physical conditioning. With the carrot of continued participation it makes motivation easy. My main message for anyone wanting to improve/maintain fitness is to find something that they enjoy doing, this way it is easy to maintain motivation over the longer term."
On whether or not he'll be heading to next year's tournament in Dublin, Ireland, Clay said he'd like to, but will first have to talk it over with his "very supportive wife," and then see if he makes the grade with selection as the squad develops, as interest in involvement continues to increase.
