Stoumbos Now #6 In HOF

Stoumbos enters hall
Courtesy Tony Saxon, Guelph Mercury

As Guelph’s Helen Stoumbos was inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame last weekend, she couldn’t help but think it was as much her dad’s honour as her own.

It was John Stoumbos who would, on an almost daily basis, pack his young soccer prodigy into the family car at their downtown Guelph home and make the short drive over to Centennial Park to practise.

If it wasn’t there, it was in the family backyard, weaving in and out of pieces of garbage set up on the lawn as makeshift pylons.

“He never coached me on a team, but he was my coach,” Stoumbos, 37, said yesterday. “The hall of fame induction was more for my dad than me.”

Stoumbos became the sixth female inducted into the Canadian soccer hall of fame.

More About Helen Stoumbos
Helen holds a unique record; she scored the first goal a Canadian player, male or female, ever scored in the finals of the World Cup.

CLICK Soccer Hall of Fame Inductee Record