A Warm Welcome For The Chill: Thunder Bay’s Return To Canadian Soccer

The last time TbayTel Field saw footy grace its grass, the Thunder Bay Chill were facing off against Rochester FC in what would end up being a two-nil victory at the tail end of a sensational season. It took the Chill only 21 minutes to break the deadlock as Loris Tsiatsipy netted one past Rochester’s Daniel Miklosi, while teammate Philipp Jauch would get another in the 82′ to secure the victory.

The 2024 USL2 season was, unfortunately, the final chapter for the Chill’s storied USL history, despite the side having only been in the bottom half of their division’s table once over the previous 16 years while simultaneously accumulating nine divisional titles to their name. As the years progressed, the Chill had slowly watched as their fellow Canadian-based USL2 sides folded, merged, or moved to other leagues until they were the sole survivors. Even then, they could not escape the grasp of a similar fate.

When the calendars flipped to January 2025, the club revealed that it had become the next casualty in a growing list, confirming a pause to their semi-professional operations and a hiatus from the USL due to the league’s divisional realignment and rising operational costs made worse by conversion rates between Canadian and American dollars. Although the decision was not entirely surprising considering post-pandemic realities, this decision rocked the city’s sports scene as a staple of the community evaporated in an instant.

Flash forward to late 2025 and a new page had turned in the Chill’s history: the launch of the Prairies Premier League brought a good opportunity to rejoin the North American soccer pyramid, this time north of the border. In the run-up to the 2026 PPL season, Northern Tribune had the opportunity to talk with the Chill’s Executive Director, Tony Colistro, and the head coach of the Chill’s men’s and women’s squads, Marco Colistro, to discuss the club, their return, and the expectations ahead of the campaign.

USL vs PPL, Past vs Future, And Status Quo vs Uncharted Territory

The road to the PPL was, admittingly, a bumpy one for the Chill. After 25 years in the Premier Development League / United Soccer League Two, their position became untenable, and change was long-needed. Although 2025 was to be a wash, there still remained hope of a return to the USL in 2026.

Ever since the initial info sessions in 2023, the Chill had made their repatriation interests known to those in the Premier Soccer Leagues of Canada system (then League1 Canada).

“We couldn’t make any firm commitments to the potential startup of the league as we still had an agreement to be part of USL2,” says Tony, “[but] we still wanted to be kept in the loop as we had a feeling that our future in USL2 was coming to an end.”

The writing was on the wall for some time, particularly from 2021 onwards, as COVID and the dollar’s conversion rate made travel into the United States increasingly difficult. Then came the issue of the women’s side: the lack of a women’s equivalent league at the Chill’s peak in the late 2000s/early 2010s made this an impossibility. Even when the USL launched the W-League in 2022, the Chill were denied a women’s franchise, in large part due to the absence of teams in the ‘Deep North’ region.

As the W-League grew – now boasting 96 teams – COVID made it so that “not only was the women’s team off the table, but there were discussions about us leaving on the men’s side, so it never came to fruition,” said Marco. With the final nail in the coffin hammered down, the club knew that the time to switch was imminent.

With the wind-down of the 2024 USL2 season, the Chill explored several different avenues to return to the pitch in 2025, including the prospects of joining the Ontario Premier League, with Tony Colistro and Dino Rossi meeting regularly to discuss the club’s future.

“There were always these discussions … about what was coming down the road. The Prairies were the missing gap in the [PSLC] geography and it was clear that they wanted us to be a part of this new league,” said Marco. “The timing of us leaving the USL and FC Manitoba having already left – with both of us wanting to stay active – it just kind came to fruition.”

Those conversations bore fruit. Having built the necessary relationships over the previous few years, the Chill were eventually contacted by the technical directors of the Saskatchewan and Manitoba Soccer Associations – Hassan Mowgli and Chris Lourenço, respectively – who were serving as ‘the catalysts’ in the creation of this new league.

“Once we found out that the USL was off the table, joining the PPL was a no-brainer,” says Marco. Despite having their place cemented in American soccer history, notably as the first non-American club to win the USL2 Championship, the goal had always been to shift and be a part of the Canadian player pathway and system.

“When considering our legacy in Canada, [we wanted to] help develop and support the Canadian system. We felt that [the PPL] would be better for our club from a player development pathway and operational pathway,” says Tony.

Together, the Colistros drove home the idea of being ‘pioneers’ in the Canadian footy world. From their 2008 USL2 title to their present entry into the Premier Soccer Leagues Canada system and the Canadian pyramid – both on the men’s and women’s sides – the goal has always been to grow the city’s soccer culture, particularly its local talent, and they both saw this repatriation as a key piece in their puzzle.

In Marco We Trust: How to Build Two New Teams

Having been involved in the club since childhood and having “held every possible role in the club,” Marco Colistro has built up an intimate knowledge of the beautiful game in his home city that will prove particularly useful in the club’s next ambitious target: building two rosters of solely Thunder Bay-based players.

Despite having operated for the last 26 years, the club’s semi-professional and pre-professional rosters failed to deliver on an exclusive pathway for those enjoying soccer in Northwestern Ontario, with their imported talent defining the club for a generation. This was never lost on their fans either, as explains Marco.

“One of the criticisms we’ve gotten over the years is ‘why don’t we use the local players more?’ Well, at the time, they weren’t ready in some of those years. It takes a long time to get your youth program to where they are ready to do this. But now they are, and we’re excited to see that!”

For the Colistros, their mission has now become to field the best representatives of the city who are from the city, and they feel the club and the city’s sporting culture are finally in a position to support this. Although Marco did acknowledge that there are a few players remaining who are coming from out of town on both the men’s and women’s sides, the club has reached approximately 95% local players, with that being defined as players who are from Thunder Bay or who were living in the city before their recruitment.

This loyalty – not to club, but to Thunder Bay, to the North – is the foundational ideology behind the club’s roster construction. If you have ever had the pleasure of meeting someone from Northwestern Ontario, there is a fierce loyalty and pride that emanates from them, a reverence for Northern Ontario and a unique kind of strength and resilience that is seen in everything from the vibrant cultures of the numerous Indigenous communities that dot the upper half of the province to pop culture in shows like Crave’s Shoresy.

The Chill are no different. In our interview with Marco, he stressed the importance of player pride as he builds the team to his liking. “Obviously, we want good players who fit our way of playing, [but] it is an important factor that we find players who want to play for the Chill and want to be a part of this.” [emphasis added]

Considering this, the aforementioned youth divisions of the Chill’s programs on offer now serve this dual function of building athletes who are proud to wear the crest whilst forming them into players who play the ‘Thunder Bay way’. Having served as the youth program director and the head coach of several of the Chill’s youth sides, Marco has had the chance to build Thunder Bay’s modernized way of playing from the ground up.

When asked to describe the club’s style of play, the gaffer painted a picture of a team that is entertaining, organized, and hard-nosed in a system that prioritizes ball control but “doesn’t put limitations on our strongest players.”

“Simply put: we want to let our best players to be the best players. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.”

Long Nights and Bus Rides for the Home Side

For the Colistro family, the return to their home park, TBayTel Field, has been a long time coming. The excitement is palpable. Renovated in 2019 to revamp both its drainage systems and its natural grass field, ‘The Den’ has been the home of the side since that year and is ready to host the Chill once again, this time in the PPL.

“I’m really excited about going back, personally,” said Marco. “The locals have gotten excited too, and our ticket sales reflect this!”

When in the USL, the club was averaging 400-600 spectators, faced with a constant uphill battle against the plethora of outdoor activities in and around Thunder Bay. This year, however, they are aiming for the 1,000 mark, drawing on that local and ‘Canada strong / elbows up’ mentality that has swept Canadian sports of late.

Tony also revered the Den itself, praised the city’s upgrades and their ongoing maintenance.

“We love playing on our home field,” adds the club’s Executive Director. “It is a spectator-friendly field [that’s] very compact, so the fans feel part of the game. We play on natural grass, and the city does an amazing job keeping it up to speed. I think it will be one of the best fields in the league.”

The Chill will also be treating fans this upcoming season in a variety of ways, such as with revamped food options, including the arrival of local favourite Lento’s Pizza, and the return of the Molson Beer Tent, a staple of Chill games since their inception in 2000. Ultimately, Tony jubilantly praised the club’s operations and game-day presentation and asserted their intentions to maintain this course.

“I think one of our positives is that not only do we put on a great [winning] product on the field, but we also do a great job off the field with our staff and volunteers,” said the club’s founder. “Our game day ops is one of the best, in my opinion, as we run it as professionally as it can be for the players and the spectators.”

But beyond the time at home, the Chill will have to return to a staple of sports in Thunder Bay: long bus rides and many weekends far from loved ones. During their last time at bat, the Chill travelled to destinations that varied in distance between five and ten-and-a-half hours away, visiting such cities as Minneapolis and Rochester in Minnesota, or Kenosha and Milwaukee in Wisconsin. However, the Prairies Premier League will present a whole new beast for the team to tackle.

With PPL clubs situated in Winnipeg, Regina, and Saskatoon, the drive from Thunder Bay is a daunting eight or more hours, something that will need to be addressed by the club to ensure the health of the players. Luckily for those taking to the pitch, the Chill has a plan.

“It’s something that’s not really concerning us because of our experiences in USL,” said Marco. “We used to go to St. Louis, which was 17 [hours away]. Kansas City was 15. One year we had to go to Colorado, which was in the 20s. A lot of the players on the [men’s] team now were a part of some of these teams, so they get it.”

But for those who are the cubs in this sleuth? The team bus is seen as a place of camaraderie and team-building, and so are the stops they make along the way.

“We never do the distance in a straight shot, and we also try to travel overnight so the players can sleep on the bus, making it an ‘end and start to your day’ kind of thing.”

Additional measures the club is taking include the spending of resources to ensure the athletes’ proper hydration and nutrition, and the planning of road trips so that they arrive a day before game day.

“The priority is the players being able to play, so we always want to get there a day early for recovery.”

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Just as quickly as this league came to life, the Thunder Bay Chill’s season has now arrived and is in full swing as their two squads visited Ralph Cantafio Field to take on their old USL2 rivals in FC Manitoba. Having not faced the side since July 5, 2023, the club was boasting a winning 3W-2D-0L historical record since FC Manitoba evolved from the ashes of WSA Winnipeg.

In the end though, Manitoba ultimately took three points in the women’s match in a three-nil win, while the men’s sides drew one-one with Nick Phyllis netting the club’s first ever PPL goal. Following their match against FCM, the sides will remain in Winnipeg to take on FC Lucania (the women only) and the Bonivital Flames.

Reflecting on the emotions surrounding their return, Marco and Tony were both candid in their outlooks.

“We’re just excited to be back, to connect with everyone again from the fans to our community partners,” Marco exclaimed excitedly. “Having the schools’ game coming back, our exciting new sponsorships, we’re excited to be home and being back to normal.”

As for Tony, he took on a more competitive outlook.

“We want to be at the top. We want to be considered a dominant figure and the leader in our sport, whether that be on the field or off. We built this reputation in USL2 [amongst] 125 teams in North America and I believe we can be viewed in the same way here in Canada.”

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The Thunder Bay Chill return to the active play in the summer of 2026 as a part of the incoming Prairies Premier League, alongside the Bonivital Flames, FC Manitoba, Queen City United, Saskatchewan Excel, Forza SA (men’s only) and FC Lucania (women’s only). Their home season will kick-off on May 31 with a double-header against Bonivital at TbayTel Field at Chapples Park.