Terry Wilson saw the future of youth soccer in Prince George.
He envisioned the city's biggest amateur sports organization would one day have an indoor home at a place just like the Northern Sport Centre, and that the Prince George Youth Soccer Association would have a full-time paid technical coach to help kids achieve their goals.
His visions did come true.
But not before Wilson had left the city.
A man before his time, time ran out on Wilson's life far too soon. He died at age 47 in a Calgary hospital June 19 of a brain tumour.
"If he could have got into full-time soccer here, he would never have left this town," said Wilson's longtime friend, Terry Murphy. "That was his passion, but his thinking was too early for here. It just hadn't evolved enough here.
"If we were at the stage we're at now when he was here, he'd be running the whole thing."
Wilson first got involved in the PGYSA as a rep team coach for his sons teams. In his quest to improve his ability to teach the game, he started attending summer coaching clinics at Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island where he was taught by the likes of Manchester United coach Dave Sexton, Alan Churchill and Tony Waiters. He worked his way up in the organization and for the past four years ran the summer soccer program.
"He was a top-class coach and he was certainly a leader," said Terry Carter, past-president of the North Cariboo Senior Soccer League. "He was a national B-level coach before more most people ever realized what coaching levels were. He was a family man and an absolute gentleman -- just a nice person."
For more on the life of Terry Wilson, see Monday's Citizen
