Spencer Ure has served as the equipment supervisor for the Canadian men's national soccer team since January, 2022.EDUARDO LIMA/The Globe and Mail
From laundry to logistics, Spencer Ure does it all for the Canadian men’s soccer team.
Ure’s title of Canada Soccer’s men’s equipment supervisor and administrative assistant is all-encompassing. And the 31-year-old from Toronto, who was also part of the Canadian team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, lives up to his billing as a jack-of-all-trades problem-solver.
“That is Spencer. He’s got a lot of work to do and a lot of preparation goes into what he’s doing,” said former Canada captain Atiba Hutchinson.
“He’s a great guy. Guys love to have him around and we’ve always appreciated everything he does for the team.”
Vancouver Rise FC chief soccer officer Robyn Gayle, Canada Soccer’s former mental and cultural manager, says Ure takes huge pride in his job.
“The little details he put in, how he prepared the kit, just shows the care and attention for the players and the staff. It makes a difference. … For me, those are the kind of people you want to work with.”
Ure and his crew are usually the first to arrive and the last to leave.
Ure prepares equipment during a training session at the Toronto FC Training Centre as the national team prepped to begin play for the World Cup.EDUARDO LIMA/The Globe and Mail
Prior to training, Ure checks the coaches’ plan for practice so the field can be properly prepared with the right equipment in the right place.
When Canadian players arrive, their clean kit is waiting for them. Some of the gear is neatly bundled and available for pickup on a nearby table. A giant boot bag offers an array of footwear.
No matter the weather, Ure has the right clothing options available.
Forward Tani Oluwaseyi says Ure and his helpers “make everything tick.”
“It’s a privilege to have really good equipment managers,” he said. “I’ve seen the reverse and how difficult that can be. So to have people who do it at such a high level, I think they just make it easier for us to go out and do our jobs, and I think they’re so important.”
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When available, Cortlin Tonn serves as Ure’s assistant while Canada is in camp. Tonn’s full-time job is equipment manager for the New York Red Bulls.
Working with coach Jesse Marsch and his staff is “very easy and smooth,” Ure said. “We know what they like, we know how they like it.”
“That being said, things will pop up,” he added.
The good news is, after several years on the job, if he needs something, Ure has the contacts to find it.
“It used to be a lot scarier. Now it’s not so scary,” he said.
And YouTube apparently offers plenty of video help from fellow equipment managers.
Ure, right, speaks with Canada forward Jayden Nelson moments before the start of a training session at the Toronto FC Training Centre last week.EDUARDO LIMA/The Globe and Mail
The administrative part of Ure’s job involves working with the Montreal warehouse that holds all of the national teams’ gear and equipment, from youth sides to the senior squad. He also has a small storage unit in Toronto where core medical and coaching equipment is kept for local staff.
Aidan Heavens, a student who has a part-time job looking after the Montreal warehouse, is helping Ure and Tonn during the World Cup.
Ure works with Jan Lang, men’s national team manager, and Daniel Michelucci, the director of national teams operations, on flights, hotels and other logistics.
The national team does not travel light.
On the current World Cup trail, the team is travelling with some 125 pieces of luggage covering everything from players’ kits and medical supplies to printers and projectors. Add in some 110 pieces of personal luggage for players and staff, figuring both carry-on and checked bags.
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The team’s requirements on the road are precise.
Prior to the squad’s arrival, hotels are given an exacting list of what is required for the meals and meeting rooms, down to the number of chairs and the size of tables.
A large equipment room, with a minimum of 800 to 900 square feet, is another must.
This World Cup promised to be a lot different from four years ago in Qatar, where Ure had to deal with everything from different electric standards to local customs.
“It was a lot of over-preparing and over-packing. … It had its own set of challenges,” he said.
A lot of late nights and fuses blowing. Not to mention “suboptimal” laundry facilities.
Ure and his colleagues log long hours making sure Canada's men's soccer team has all of its equipment needs taken care of, both for training sessions and World Cup games.EDUARDO LIMA/The Globe and Mail
Ure is happy to be playing on home soil this time.
“Now that it’s in North America, in my backyard in Toronto and in Vancouver, we are so well connected,” he said.
Ure and other Canada Soccer officials have been talking to Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps officials for two to three years. The Canadian men are training at the Major League Soccer teams’ practice facilities.
Players usually arrive in camp with their own boots or collect them from sponsors when they arrive. Ure provides the players their individual boot bags – Alphonso Davies and Richie Laryea have their initials on theirs.
If the team does not have secure overnight access to the training centre it is using on the road, Ure will take the team’s boots back to his hotel room to air out.
“My room basically stinks,” he said. “Crack that bag open and air them out. Because nobody likes getting back into wet, kind of stinky boots the next day.”
Players are told to pack one set of boots in their checked luggage and another in their carry-on. But not everyone listens, apparently.
That means Ure to the rescue.
Ure, right, and assistant Aidan Heavens prepare equipment during a training session at the Toronto FC Training Centre last week.EDUARDO LIMA/The Globe and Mail
Ure knows his players – including those who like to cut holes in their socks for a roomier feel.
Ure says while fewer of his players are taking scissors to their socks these days, he has started ordering more large and extra-large socks.
“There’ll be a new trend, I’m sure, this summer and I’ll have to negotiate that,” he said dryly.
Midfielder Stephen Eustáquio, Canada’s vice-captain, credits Ure for getting things done, no matter what.
“Nothing ever misses. Even if it’s, like, details of a boot warmer that we really need, he gets,” Eustáquio said.
Ure’s journey to the national team started while earning a degree in environment and urban sustainability at Ryerson University, now known as Toronto Metropolitan University.
He got a summer job working in the university’s athletics department. That led to equipment work with the soccer and hockey teams. It started with laundry duties but he soon graduated to sharpening skates and travelling with the hockey team as its equipment manager.
When the university was looking for someone to fill the role of varsity equipment coordinator for a year, Ure stepped up. At the same time, he added to his portfolio by working with the Toronto FC academy and doing the occasional Hockey Canada camp.
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His time at TFC led to meeting a variety of Canada Soccer officials, including then-men’s coach John Herdman. And in 2021, Canada Soccer asked him to work at a men’s camp.
He soon found himself on the Canadian men’s World Cup qualifying journey, a successful if strange ride during the pandemic. A trip to Haiti was a challenge with the team brain trust looking to spend as little time as possible in Port-au-Prince.
Ure recalls rocks being thrown at the Canadian team bus and the players leaving the stadium in their playing gear to shower at the hotel before leaving immediately for the airport. CONCACAF competition makes some nations unwelcoming hosts.
“I always tell people it was baptism by fire,” said Ure.
It was a short-term gig for Ure, who returned to Ryerson to take up another contract as varsity equipment coordinator.
In December, 2021, Canada Soccer offered him a full-time role as national team equipment manager. He started a month later, with six games left in World Cup qualifying.
Urban studies had given way to sports full-time.
“Falling into it, in a way,” Ure said of his career change.
With files from Paul Attfield