While Phil Iafrati won countless championships and tournaments for Oakville, his legacy lies not in his decorated career, but in his transformative work with the men who played for him. His attachment to the community began in the 1970s, when he moved to Oakville from Manchester. Determined to connect with those around him, he agreed to coach hockey—a game he had never played, himself.
Shortly after this, four soccer pitches were built in Shell Park. With experience coaching hockey behind him, Iafrati decided to take on the area’s budding soccer stars. He was determined to bring out potential in his boys, putting them through grueling two- to three- hour practices—even in the dead of winter. His hard work—and that of his athletes—paid off, with his 1998 U19 men’s team winning the Canadian Club Soccer Championships that year. The next year, Iafrati formed the Oakville Blue Stars, a U90-A boys team, under the Oakville Soccer Club. This team competed at the highest levels of soccer, eventually playing in the Provincial Division of the Ontario Soccer League, the top soccer league in Ontario.
They certainly lived up to the challenge: the team took two National Club Championships, three Ontario Cup Championships (U14, U15, and U21), seven League Champion Titles, five League Cups, and two Dunleavy Cups. The glorious success of Iafrati’s Blue Stars doesn’t stop there; the majority of his players went on to play at both the collegiate and professional levels. Fifteen played university soccer in the NCAA; a dozen played at Canadian universities; seven have represented Canada; and many have been picked up by Major League Soccer teams (including Toronto FC and Montreal Impact).
One of his prodigies, Mike Vanderjagt, went on to become the most accurate fieldgoal kicker in NFL history, and was inducted into the Oakville Sports Hall of Fame in 2012. In the end, Iafrati served with the Oakville Soccer Club for 40 years as a coach, as a member of its Board of Directors, and briefly, as its President. In 2001, he was named by the organization as a Life Member, and in 2012, he was named one of its 40 People of Influence. Although Iafrati passed away in 2013, his legacy lives on through his players, who view him as an undeniably positive influence from their formative years.
