About the Cachafaz

Cachafaz is Spanish for “rascally”, and there's no doubt that our team lives up to its name in their off-field time, and occasionally, to the coaches’ chagrin, during practice. Most of our U11s have been together as a team for three years, and many within the team have grown up together as classmates at Devonshire and First Avenue Public Schools. That translates to a team where players know each other's strengths and support each other. As a group, they keep each other in line, praise each other's good plays, and are quick to pick each other up after disappointments.

This team loves soccer and each other. Want proof? Stop by the field and watch a two-hour practice stretch to three hours and beyond...because to coach Stevie Bencsics and the boys “next goal wins” is pure fantasy. Pop by on a Saturday and you're likely to see them bonding over pizza.

The Cachafaz are a U11 team representing the Ottawa St Anthony Italia Soccer Club. St Anthony’s, one of Ottawa’s smallest and oldest clubs, celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.

Challenged by the draw of larger clubs with fancier facilities, St Anthony’s has struggled to grow its youth programs in the past. However, our group of U11 boys are proving every day that this is a club worth supporting. In fact, the passion and spirit of this local team is contagious, helping revitalize the Club by drawing players from within and beyond its inner-city neighbourhood, and pulling younger siblings into what is now becoming a thriving youth program.

Coach Stevie personifies passion for the game. He's been part of St Anthony’s for 45 years, coaching over 100 of its teams. He has grown his U21 team from the time they were U13s, and now our U11s are benefiting from his dedication. He exemplifies the club’s philosophy: building better players, building better people. He cultivates pride and instills a sense of family: his older players teach and mentor, and developmental players are invited to practice with the team.

This is the last year that these boys will be playing in the dust bowl they call home -- next year they will be on a full-size field. But the Cachafaz know that little brothers Owen, Callum and Marcus, and the other younger players in the club, will continue to use the mini-fields at Plouffe Park and deserve a proper playing surface. Winning the BMO TOTW grand prize would make tha

Read what our fans have to say about us in our BMO TOTW entry.

No smog advisory that day, that's just our field sublimating...