Q&A with Halifax Tides CEO Dr. Courtney Sherlock: Coaching decisions, a growing academy and NSL expansion
A year ago, the Halifax Tides had yet to kick a ball. Everything, from their first match to that winning feeling, was in the future. But chasing those firsts helped push them, not to mention the Northern Super League's (NSL) five other inaugural clubs, towards what was to be a historic season in Canadian football: the women's game had arrived.
This off-season has been quite different for the Tides. There's existing contracts, past performances to account for. There's the desire to improve on the pitch and the internal expectation that the Tides will battle for a playoff spot. Staff and players want more of themselves.
Dr. Courtney Sherlock, the Tides' co-founder and CEO, is aware of all of this and recently sat down with Josh Healey — this publication's publisher and editor — to discuss last season, important coaching and roster decisions and the future of NSL expansion.
JH: As always, Courtney, it's lovely to see you. I was looking at my notes the other day and its about this time last year that we had an interview before your inaugural season. Before we speak about 2026 and the year to come, I wanted to go back a little bit and get your thoughts on the end of last year and maybe some lessons the club has learned having gone through this once already.
CS: Yeah, absolutely. We kind of look at (the club) as two different departments within the same company. We've got our business and operations side and then we've got our sporting side. At all levels of the business and operations side, we did so well. We led the league in ticket sales, in fans, in sponsorships. We had great merch sales and customers really supported us. We had an excellent season (on that side) and we hope to leverage what we've done there and continue growing.
On the sporting side, we did not do well. We didn't do well on the field so our biggest lessons have been what do we need to do in terms of the talent and the cohesiveness and basically how do we approach it so we can be more competitive, quite frankly. That's really what our off-season has been focused on.
JH: One of the big announcements this off-season that you put out was that interim head coach Stephen Hart became the permanent head coach. Can you kind of talk about that decision and how that sets up the Tides for the coming year where he's going to have a full pre-season with the squad compared to coming in mid-season in 2025.
CS: We actually used Bloom Sport, we used a head hunter, and went through the process and Stephen was one of the candidates, along with others and really we just felt like he's such a great coach and such a great human and when we compared him to the other applicants, it really made sense to say what could he do if he had a full pre-season, he had a say in the squad and he was really there to see the team through from beginning to end of season.
We saw so many positive things happen when he stepped in as interim coach that we just think there's so much more that can come with him having a more involved part in a full season.
JH: One of the big things I've noticed in the signings this off-season is there seems to be an emphasis on attacking players and putting the ball into the back of the net a little bit more. Is that one of the main focuses you identified in your off-season plans?
CS: Absolutely, for sure. For instance, Anika Tóth, who really had to step in as goalkeeper when Erin (McLeod) was injured, that was not part of the plan at all and she did well and she won goalie of the year and blocked so many shots. But we just couldn't put the ball in the net. We need to get more goals, ultimately.
So, that's been a huge focus of the recruiting and what they're looking for in players.
JH: Given the reset you've done, what are the expectations for this coming season?
CS: Well, one of the things we had as an advantage in the way we set up our squad, even though we didn't perform on the field, we had a lot of flexibility with making player changes. We only retained 12 players — that's a big change. No one else is doing (that much change). They had a small amount of wiggle room where we had a huge amount.
So, we're choosing to look at this as this is a great way that we can reset and we're going to be a bit of the unknown this year. We do know (our opponents squads), we know who were playing against, we know what their moves are. We're really hoping that if we put the right players in place and focus and have a fantastic pre-season, we can come out and be a really big force. Certainly, our goal is that we'd like to make the playoffs this year and not be bottom of the table.
JH: I recently interviewed Syd Kennedy and she had mentioned when pre-season starts. Can you confirm that you're kicking off at the BMO Centre in a couple weeks?
CS: Yup, I think players come to market around mid-February, 14th, 15th, something like that. There's a lot of paperwork, medicals, that take up the first few days, classroom stuff, but training starts here shortly thereafter.
JH: It's an exciting time because we get to see all the work you've done in the in-between.
Moving off the pitch a little bit, I recently covered (HRM's) audit and finance committee meeting and some of the changes to the city operating and managing the (Wanderers Grounds) last year. Is there anything you can kind of share as to the agreements? (Editor's Note: HRM staff recently submitted a report that the city owes the Halifax Wanderers FC an extra $590,385 for their service agreement to operate the stadium).
CS: From our perspective, I hope the public knows, we're just a client. We had no say in the contract or the agreement. They have not shared any of those details with us. We were simply making an agreement with the city to rent the stadium and the field every game and we pay a lot of money to do it. We don't have any more insight than you would.
JH: Understood. Not only will it be a big year for the Tides but it'll also be a big year for football fans across Canada. What are some things you guys have kind of talked about to build the hype as the World Cup comes to Canada?
CS: We're definitely feeling like this is going to be one of those years where we raise the profile of the sport in general, it's going to help everybody, whether it's the men or the women. Having the men's World Cup here is, I think, going to be great.
What we're going to be focusing on is net new fans. People who weren't paying attention to the sport or maybe, just in the back of their minds, and now realize: 'Wow, this is a big deal.' You don't realize how soccer or football crazy the rest of the world is. We're really hoping we'll bring a lot of awareness to the sport, especially on the youth side. We're definitely going to be out a lot in the community this year. And we were a lot last year but we're hoping even to improve on that by getting to grassroots games, getting to the festivals, getting to the tournaments and just take advantage of the frenzy that's going on.
Josh Healey
JH: I'm glad you mentioned the youth component of it. I've seen on social media that you've been very busy with the Tides academy. Can you talk about how things are going with the academy and how that's grown?
CS: Right from the beginning, you might remember, I had sort of three pillars that we're the goals. First one was have the team, have the Tides play and have a season. The second pillar was infrastructure and the third pillar was getting the academy going. We've been very successful in doing that this fall, we've started small and we're going to grow it.
What we did was Canada Games was in the summer and for those who don't know, the girls Canada Games team from Nova Scotia won the bronze medal, so quite successful there. We started with that team as a foundation and added and recruited some players to have a high performance team. We started in late September, early October. They practice, they train together. They have competition with university teams, they play boys team and we've really tried to provide a spot where high performance players can come together and continue to grow. Before we started this, there was nowhere for 16, 17, 18-year old to do that, right? In Soccer Nova Scotia, the development pathway stops at 15. That's our goal.
We're actually heading to the (Vancouver) Whitecaps tournament in March with the team, so that'll be a great place to show their skills. And in the spring, around April or so, we're going to add another team — we're not going to call it a U-23 or U-21 team because we've got to see what the ages look like — but basically, a first-team to compete with against our team and also to be a nice feeder program. Our goal is to bring up a couple of the youth development players to play with the first-team this year and to basically create a funnel for them, a place to say if I work hard and I'm talented, this is sort of my pathway.
That's where we're at. Again, we're really just dipping our toes in but we really wanted to make sure we kept opportunities for the girls in the region because it's very difficult, as you know, if you don't live in Toronto or Montréal or Vancouver, Canada Soccer is tough to get their attention. We want to create that opportunity down here.
JH: Nova Scotia's talent in the women's game has always punched way above its weight given the resources. It's cool to see it coming to fruition that you can go from your youth team, to Tides academy, to the first-team and professional minutes.
CS: That's the goal.
JH: Just a few more questions here. What's something you've got circled on the calendar for 2026 that you're excited for?
CS: Well, we're really looking forward to being one of the teams that have an opening weekend game. We didn't have one last year, we were a week after the opening game so we're really excited about that.
I'm looking forward to seeing what the squad's going to to be like. Last year, you had no idea, right, you didn't know and this year it's almost like that same feeling again. It's almost like it's net new. I can't wait to see how they come together and how they perform on the field. The first time we won a game is certainly one of the best memories I have from last season. I can't wait to have that feeling again.
One of the things I did last season was I traveled with the team to their first in-market game to each location, except I didn't get to Ottawa, but I really enjoyed that. I really like to see them play when they're on the road and I'm looking forward to doing that this year.
JH: Last prepared question I had. What, from your chair, are you looking forward to in year two for (the Northern Super League) as a whole?
CS: Our goal is to assign an expansion team this year. That's the biggest goal. I'm on the expansion committee, we're shortlisting, right now, cities and groups and investors and that's the biggest thing with the league this year, it's growth.
JH: That's very interesting. I, of course, have written about expansion for the Canadian Premier League but I wanted to know what are the parameters for NSL expansion?
CS: We've definitely got parameters. We're looking at the city's support. That's a really big one, government support. As we've all learned, infrastructure is an enormous problem and so you need to have the city's support within the municipalities, especially the mayors. We've met with all the government officials in the cities that we're contemplating.
Yes, you can be an investor, you need a certain amount of money and the passion and to be a good human, those are all very important. But on top of that, we need them to have the support of the city behind them to ensure they have a place to play, not just a place but something that's going to be fitting. It's very difficult when you're third, fourth, fifth tenant in a stadium or facility. Just making sure it's the right fit, that's one of the big things.
We've got a really great group of owners, mostly entrepreneurs, and it's a club-owned league so having people that are a good fit is really important.
JH: Well, that's very exciting. It sounds like you're having a lot of very interesting conversations. That's all the questions I had prepared ahead of time. Is there anything you'd like to add either about your club or the league in general that you think is important to highlight?
CS: I think that we'd just like to say a huge thank you to the fans, we've got the best fans in the country, there's no question. The entire league agrees with us — we're, of course, biased. But we would just like to welcome and encourage everybody to come back for season two. Their support was instrumental in keeping our heads held high no matter what the score was. The success of our team is really our community. It's a big part of it so we can't wait to welcome everybody back.
JH: Thank you.
Editor's Note: This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Cover Photo Credit: Halifax Tides FC
