Inside a Halifax hotel ballroom on a cold night in early February, kids and adults lined up for a chance to take a picture with a shark.
As the Northern Super League (NSL) prepares to begin its inaugural season this spring, Halifax Tides FC welcomed its season-ticket holders to the hotel to meet their new team.
In addition to meeting Jawslyn, the fabulous teal scarf-wearing shark who is the Tides’ mascot, anyone could strike up a conversation with team management or a player. Many kids brought their soccer balls to get signed by the team.
The Tides haven’t played a game yet — that will come on April 26, when the team hosts Calgary Wild FC at the Wanderers Grounds in downtown Halifax — but from the popular mascot to the team’s teal merchandise, the Tides already have a presence in this east coast city.
Halifax is home to men’s soccer, lacrosse, basketball and major junior hockey teams. But the Maritime provinces have never had a women’s professional sports team. The Tides will be the first, and the fans at the first team event were eager to show their support.
For some, it was something they’ve waited decades to see.
When Meredith Higgins played soccer growing up, playing professionally seemed far outside the realm of possibility.
As an adult, the season-ticket holder is excited to watch her favourite player, Erin McLeod, who is a keeper just like Higgins. It’s even more important, she said, for young girls to see what is possible.
“It’s demonstrating over and over again that there is a market for us,” Higgins said about the fans in Halifax. “We supported the Mooseheads [QMJHL team] for such a long time and the players that have come through and the world juniors that have come through. I think it’s finally time for the women to shine.”
Other season-ticket holders, like Katie Malone, are new to the sport. When the NSL was announced, she immediately hoped Halifax would have a team. When the team was confirmed, Malone became a soccer fan.
“I enjoy going to any live sporting game and if women are playing, I’m even more excited about it,” Malone said.
Moving across the Atlantic
The NSL has teams from coast-to-coast, from the Tides in the east to Vancouver Rise FC in the west. In the middle is Montreal Roses FC, Ottawa Rapid FC, AFC Toronto and Calgary Wild FC.
The Tides were born last June, when the name and logo were officially unveiled. The ship is steered by club CEO and co-founder, Courtney Sherlock, and president, Val Malone.
But for many, the moment the Tides really started to take shape was in the fall, when the team announced McLeod as its first player signing. The former Canadian national team goalkeeper, who owns Olympic gold and bronze medals, had most recently played professionally in Iceland.
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She started last season in Iceland thinking she’d be doing more coaching than playing, but found herself back in goal when the team’s two keepers went to university in the United States.
Her sister’s family visited her and McLeod loved having the opportunity to play in front of the kids. Now, she’s put retirement on the back burner to play closer to home. Her sister, brother-in-law and three kids all live in the Halifax area.
The move across the Atlantic wasn’t just meaningful for McLeod. Her wife, Icelandic midfielder Gunnhildur “Gunny” Yrsa Jónsdóttir, also has ties in Halifax. Her late aunt, Gunn Baldursson, was a talented soccer player and student at Acadia University when she died in a car accident in 1987.
Baldursson’s legacy is still felt in the community nearly four decades later, including through an annual soccer tournament called the Gunn Baldursson Memorial Tournament.
Jónsdóttir has also signed to play with the Tides this season, only a few months after giving birth to their son.
Putting a puzzle together
A few days into training camp, and the day after the season-ticket holder event, music blasted from the team’s training facility as players tackled medical and fitness testing. McLeod and Jónsdóttir’s son joined them, taking shifts with each of his parents.
At one point, Jónsdóttir pushed a baby stroller, jogged laps around the turf and recorded a voice note at the same time.
McLeod, who said Jónsdóttir crushed her in fitness testing, has been inspired by her wife’s return to play.
“Secretly, my heart was hoping that she would decide to play, but I never wanted to put any pressure on her and I’ll support her no matter what,” McLeod said.
“I know it’s cheesy to say, but she’s a Viking in every sense of the word. And she’s my best friend. She’s been so supportive to me. This was very much a family decision and I’m just proud to watch her come back.”
McLeod expects Jónsdóttir to come back stronger, but with more purpose than ever before. Becoming parents has redefined what love is for both of them.
Elsewhere on the field, head coach Lewis Page was in the process of getting to know his players. After talking to all of them over zoom, Page was able to start to see his roster come to life.
A longtime coach with the University of Prince Edward Island, the Tides job has brought Page closer to home. He spent much of his youth in Chester on Nova Scotia’s south shore.
His job with the Tides officially started in November at the end of the university soccer season. But a lot of work went on before that alongside sporting director Amit Batra and the rest of the club to start building a team from the ground up.
“We’ve spent all fall and November, December really building the player model that we wanted, the playing style that we wanted, and then finding the players to fit those pieces,” Page said. “And then spending time trying to build the structure around the team, so all the sports science support and the relationships with facilities and all that.
“It’s not like walking into a university environment where everything, from that standpoint, is already there. We had to put all those pieces together.”
A sign of ambition
Another key piece came together in January when the team announced it was bringing in New Zealand forward Milly Clegg on loan from the NWSL’s Racing Louisville FC.
The news release from the club on Clegg’s signing promised her “pace, power and skill” would thrill fans.
It was also a sign of the club and league’s ambition.
“We’re going after the top players and she’s one of the top young players in the world right now,” Page said.
The Tides will also feature local Nova Scotia talent including Sarah Taylor (Bridgewater), Saorla Miller (Halifax) and Syd Kennedy (Fletchers Lake).
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“We would have signed them if they weren’t Nova Scotians because they’re quality players,” Page said. “I think the added bonus is that they are local players that grew up here, that people know and remember as young players and can use as an example to other young players here to say, look, these players came through our system. They developed here from Nova Scotia.”
For Kennedy, who will celebrate her 24th birthday on Sunday, the goal was always to come home after finishing her collegiate career at the University of Florida.
As soon as she heard about the Tides, she knew she had to find a way to be part of it. It was her passion, competitiveness and enthusiasm that stood out for the team, Page said.
“I want to score goals,” Kennedy said. “I want to create goals and I’m going to work my butt off. I don’t want anyone to outwork me.”
‘The energy is building’
Behind the scenes, sporting operations manager Tom Hall has helped make things come to life.
That includes helping players get to Halifax and find a place to live and assisting international players with work permits, but also doing things like working with a nutritionist to make sure players are fed what they need to perform.
Hall grew up playing soccer in Dartmouth, N.S., before focusing on sprint canoe, where he earned medals at the Canada Games and Pan American Games and competed in four world championships.
Before joining the Tides, he managed operations for canoe sprint and Para canoe at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Now, he gets to build something new where he grew up.
“It’s so exciting,” Hall said. “I think we have an opportunity to build a team in the image of Halifax and and build it around the community that’s here. The energy is building every day.”
