About Hyacks
The Royal City Hyacks Football Club was established in 2004 with the purposes of:
- having a positive impact on the lives of young people in New Westminster, enabling and encouraging their healthy physical, emotional and mental development through the influence of the sport of football.
- building a strong football culture in New Westminster to assist in the long-term growth and success of the sport in this city.
Our mission is to develop a love and appreciation of football in our players so they can benefit from the many life lessons the game teaches. We want to play competitive football and foster an environment in which the average individual and the team can have success.
We are a member of the Vancouver Mainland Football League (VMFL), consisting of community football clubs from around the Lower Mainland, the BC Community Football Association (BCCFA), the provincial organization for community football, and the British Columbia Provincial Football Association who is the governing body for amateur football in British Columbia.
The Hyack story
In 2004, after a persistent and passionate proposal, “Coach Farhan” Lalji saw his dream of starting a competitive football program in his adopted home of New Westminster. He began with a single JB team under the banner of the Royal City Hyacks Football Club (RCHFC). Coach Farhan (as he is affectionately referred by the hundreds of kids he coached) was no stranger to being part of a football program and recognized that in order to maintain success and succession, he would need buy in from the football community!
Coach Farhan made it his priority to hire Coach Ryan Leslie! And in 2006 he did just that..: Coach Ryan took over the youth club that year and was staple in the Hyacks Community Football for many many years. He helped build the foundation of our club and is the heart of the Hyack Family.
In 2007, the RCHFC Youth Program saw significant growth expanding to Junior Bantam and PeeWee divisions and later In 2009 the Atom and Tyke flag levels were added.
The Peewee and Junior Bantam levels have two teams each and participated in the inaugural 9 man football season in 2009. That year also saw Royal City hosts its first-ever tournament at Mercer Stadium. The tournament would later be known as the “Battle for the Axe” tournament which is typically held on Labour Day weekend. This tournament has been called a ‘marker’ to begin community league game play in September.
The Hyacks were no strangers to success as demonstrated by 2010 Tyke flag team which went undefeated in all their regular season games and including the postseason tournament. A record which still stands to this is day at the Tyke Level! The following year, the 2011 Tyke Black team also advanced to the League Championships
In 2012 the RCHFC entered the competitive and speedy game of Spring Flag Football. As the Spring Flag Program was launched the Royal City was one of five clubs which was hosting League Play events.
In 2013 the Junior bantam teams fielded teams in both VMFL 12-man, and GSL 9 man leagues. A first for the RCHFC!
In 2015 the RCHFC JV high school team won the Provincial High school championships and in 2017, the RCHFC Varsity High School team shocked the football community to win the Provincial Football championship while only losing a single game all season!
… And the Hyack Adventure continues …
