Thunder Bay Chill Soccer Club is a Canadian soccer team based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 2000, the team plays in the Prairies Premier League, in the third tier of the Canadian soccer pyramid. The team played in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the United States soccer pyramid from 2000 to 2024.
The team plays its home games at Chapples Park Stadium. The team's colours are white and blue. The club also has a large youth program, with over 2000 youth players.
History The Thunder Bay Chill were established in 2000 by founder Tony Colistro. They played their first home match on May 27, 2000, against the Wisconsin Rebels, losing 4–0. In 2002, they were named the PDL Organization of the Year.
In 2007, the Chill won their first Heartland Division title. In 2008, the Chill became the first Canadian club to win the PDL National Championship, after the defeated the Laredo Heat in penalty kicks in the final. In 2009, the four Ontario-based PDL teams (Forest City London, Toronto Lynx, Ottawa Fury, and the Chill) created a pre-season round robin tournament called the Victoria Challenge Cup, with the Chill emerging as champions, after winning all three of their matches.
From 2007 to 2013, they won the Heartland Division six times in seven seasons (finishing 2nd in 2009), and qualified for the playoffs ten times in an eleven-year span from 2007 through 2017 (missing only in 2014), as part of a dominant stretch in their history which included a five-year period, where they did not suffer a home loss until 2014. In 2015, they moved their home stadium to Fort Williams Stadium, after splitting the past two seasons between the turf stadium and the natural grass field at Chapples Field. They finished as Central Conference Champions five time over this period, earning them trips to the playoffs Final Four. After their PDL Championship title in 2008, they advanced to the Championship final an additional three times in 2010, 2013, and 2017, but ultimately lost in the finals on each of those occasions.
In 2018, the Chill formed a partnership with English Premier League club West Ham United through Global Image Sports, who are West Ham's North American partnership mechanism.
In 2020, the Chill announced they would not play in the 2020 USL League Two season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the league later cancelling the entire season anyways. In 2021, the Chill once again withdrew from the league due to continuing travel restrictions associated with the pandemic (although the league did return to operate a season in 2021).
After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chill returned to the league for the 2022 season, also marking their return to newly reconstructed Chapples Park, which previously served as their home field until 2014. The team won the Deep North Division in both 2023 and 2024. Their entry in the league in 2024 was uncertain with the league contemplating removing them, but following a vote of confidence from the other teams in the division, their entry was confirmed in January 2024 (however, the other Canadian franchise FC Manitoba was removed for 2024). In January 2025, it was announced that the club would not participate in the 2025 USL League Two season, due to a variety of reasons, including a weakened Canadian dollar, operational costs for transportation, accommodation, and meals, and league divisional alignments, with the hope of returning in 2026. They announced instead that the team would attempt to organize a competitive friendly schedule and possibly enter certain Cup competitions instead.
With the Prairies Premier League (PPL) announced in December of 2025, the Chill were revealed to be one of the clubs participating in the nascent league's first season, which is slated to kick off in May of 2026. The Chill's men's team won the inaugural PPL season but, unlike the champions of the other four semi-professional leagues associated with Premier Soccer Leagues Canada, were not invited to compete in the 2027 Canadian Championship.
Coaching staff
Role NameManager/First Team Coach Marco Colistro Goalkeeping Coach Francesco Leuzzi
Notable former players The following players have either played at the professional or international level, either before or after playing for the PDL/USL2 team:
Year-by-year Men's YearLeagueRegular seasonPlayoffsCanadian ChampionshipRef.2000PDL4–1–136th, Heartland (6)did not qualifyrowspan=8 20016–1–134th, Heartland (5)did not qualify20025–1–126th, Heartland (8)did not qualify200310–1–73rd, Heartland (8)did not qualify200411–0–74th, Heartland (10)did not qualify20056–1–94th, Heartland (7)did not qualify20062–3–117th, Heartland (7)did not qualify200710–3–31st, Heartland (7)Conference semifinals (R16)200813–1–21st, Heartland (6)Championsrowspan=17 20098–5–32nd, Heartland (7)Divisional First Round (R32)201012–2–21st, Heartland (7)National finals (F)201112–2–21st, Heartland (7) National semifinals (SF)201213–1–21st, Heartland (7)Conference semifinals (R16)201312–1–11st, Heartland (7)National finals (F)20146–1–73rd, Heartland (6)did not qualify20159–3–22nd, Heartland (6)Conference semifinals (R16)20167–5–22nd, Heartland (6)Conference semifinals (R16)20179–2–31st, Heartland (6)National finals (F)20186–1–75th, Heartland (6)did not qualify2019USL26–2–63rd, Heartland (6)did not qualify2020season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic2021did not play due to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions20226–3–33rd, Deep North (6)did not qualify20239–2–11st, Deep North (7)Conference semifinals (R16)20248–1–31st, Deep North (6)Conference quarterfinals (R32)2025colspan=5 2026PPL6–3–11st (6)
Women's YearLeagueRegular seasonPlayoffsInter-Provincial ChampionshipReference2026PPL4–4–22nd (6)did not qualify
Honours Premier Development League / USL League Two National Champions: 2008 Finalists: 2010, 2013, 2017 Central Conference Champions: 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2017 Heartland Division Champions: 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017 Deep North Champions: 2023, 2024 Victoria Challenge Cup Champions: 2009
Head coaches Marco Colistro (2026-Present) Tony Colistro (2000–2014, 2023–2024, 2026–present) Giovanni Petraglia (2015–2022)
Stadiums Chapples Park Stadium (2004–2014, 2022–present) Fort William Stadium (2000–2003, 2014–2019) Attendances Attendance stats are calculated by averaging each team's self-reported home attendances from Kenn.com https://kenn.com/blog/soccer/all-time-usl-league-two-attendance/ 2000: 434 (8th in PDL) 2001: 528 (7th in PDL) 2002: 497 (11th in PDL) 2003: 522 (16th in PDL) 2004: 515 (16th in PDL) 2005: 551 (14th in PDL) 2006: 1,046 (6th in PDL) 2007: 744 (10th in PDL) 2008: 567 (18th in PDL) Playoffs 1,276 Total: 709 2009: 551 (20th in PDL) 2010: 704 (18th in PDL) Playoffs 1,165 or 1,491 Total: 861 or 830 2011: 599 (17th in PDL) 2012: 539 (16th in PDL) 2013: 799 (15th in PDL) Playoffs 1,785 Total: 1,018 2014: 615 (15th in PDL) 2015: 654 (10th in PDL) 2016: 674 2017: 610 2018: 415 2019: Playoffs 1,862 Total: 2022: 495 2023: 790 2024: 521
References
External links