Durham Flames

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title: "Durham Flames" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["canadian-soccer-league-(1998–present)-teams", "defunct-soccer-clubs-in-canada", "soccer-clubs-in-ontario", "sports-in-oshawa", "association-football-clubs-established-in-1999", "association-football-clubs-disestablished-in-2003", "1999-establishments-in-ontario", "2003-disestablishments-in-ontario"] description: "Former Canadian association football team" topic_path: "sports" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_Flames" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Former Canadian association football team ::

| clubname = Durham Flames | image = Durham Flames.jpg | caption = | fullname = Durham Flames | nickname = The Flames | motto = | shortname = | founded = 1999 (as Oshawa Flames) | stadium = Oshawa Civic Stadium Thornton Rd South / Gibb Street Oshawa Canada | capacity = 2,000 | chairman = | mgrtitle = | manager = | coach = | league = Defunct club Former members of Canadian Professional Soccer League | season = | position = | pattern_la1= | pattern_b1= | pattern_ra1= | pattern_sh1= | pattern_so1= | leftarm1=FF0000 | body1=FF0000 | rightarm1=FF0000 | shorts1=000000 | socks1=000000 | pattern_la2= | pattern_b2= | pattern_ra2= | pattern_sh2= | pattern_so2= | leftarm2= | body2= | rightarm2= | shorts2= | socks2= |}}

Durham Flames were a semi-professional Canadian football club based in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The club competed in the Canadian Professional Soccer League for five seasons from 1999 to 2003.

Background

Durham Flames (previously known as Oshawa Flames) played in the Canadian Professional Soccer League which is the third tier of Canadian football pyramid. The club was founded in 1999 and played their home matches at the Oshawa Civic Stadium in Oshawa. The stadium is able to accommodate 2,000 spectators. The club was affiliated to the Canadian Soccer Association.

History

Durham Flames were originally known as Oshawa Flames and first entered the Canadian Professional Soccer League in 1999, as a replacement for the Mississauga Eagles. The club's first head coach was CSL and APSL veteran Jens Kraemer. Notable acquisition were Darryl Gomez, Pat Sullivan, and Hubert Busby, Jr. The club finished in fifth position and reached the semi-finals of the League Cup before going out 2–0 on aggregate to Toronto Croatia, the second match proving decisive at Centennial Park Stadium. The following season the team hired the services of Durham College head coach Stan Bombino to coach the team. Bombino led Durham to a seventh-place finish which reflected the fact that they drew 9 of their 14 matches. Jimmy Kuzmanovski was the club's top goal-scorer with 9 league and cup goals. At the conclusion of the season Kuzmanovski was awarded the CPSL Rookie of the Year award. Under their new title of Durham Flames, and under the leadership of Danny Stewart the club again failed to reach the championship playoffs in the 2001 and 2002 seasons. Though Durham failed to reach the postseason they received the CPSL Fair Play award in 2001.

In their final season in 2003 in the Eastern Conference the club struggled, winning just one of their 18 league matches. This contrasted with their performance in the Open Canada Cup when they reached the Cup Final weekend before losing 4–1 to London City in a wild card game on 29 August 2003. The Flames last ever match was played on 30 September 2003 when they went down 3–1 away to Vaughan Sun Devils. On October 5, 2003, the organization was awarded their second CPSL Fair Play award for being the most disciplined team.

It was reported in the local press that The Flames were excluded from the League in December 2003, their franchise having been revoked following their failure to pay league fees and fines. Durham Storm took over their slot for home games in Oshawa's Civic Stadium on Friday nights. However The Storm bought the Mississauga Olympians franchise and did not take over the Durham Flames franchise.

Season to season

::data[format=table]

Season	League	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Playoffs	League Cup	Club name
1999	Canadian Professional Soccer League	5	14	3	6	7	19	26	14		Did not qualify
2000	Canadian Professional Soccer League	7	14	2	9	3	22	35	9		Did not qualify
2001	Canadian Professional Soccer League	10	22	7	3	12	39	53	24		Did not qualify
2002	Canadian Professional Soccer League (East)	5	19	7	2	10	28	44	23		Did not qualify
2003	Canadian Professional Soccer League (East)	6	18	1	1	16	28	73	9		Did not qualify
::

First team squad 2003

The following players represented Durham Flames in their final season:

Club administration 2003

The key officials of the club during the last season were:

• Steve Kralj - President
• Carlos De sousa - Vice President
• Frank Kralj - Treasurer
• Stan Bombino - Technical Director
• Jack Methven - Manager
• Steve Hamill - Head Coach
• Tony Cabral - Assistant Coach
• Matt Gurr - Goalkeeper Coach

Head coaches

::data[format=table]

Years	Name	Nation
1999		Canada
2000	Stan Bombino	Canada
2001	Danny Stewart	Canada
2002-2003	Steve Hamill	Canada
::

Footnotes

References

1. "ONSoccer.ca - CPSL Drops Wizards & Flames - December 3, 2003". ONSoccer.ca.
2. Glover, Robin. "Toronto Croatia vs Oshawa Flames".
3. "Canada - Canadian Premier Soccer League 1999 - rsssf.org". RSSSF.
4. "Canada - Canadian Premier Soccer League 2000 - rsssf.org". RSSSF.
5. "2000 CPSL - Final Year 2000 Results.". Rocket Robin.
6. RUMLESKI, Kathy. "LFP Sports: Croatia bags Primus Cup by upsetting Olympians".
7. "Canada - Canadian Premier Soccer League 2001 - rsssf.org". RSSSF.
8. "Canada - Canadian Premier Soccer League 2002 - rsssf.org". RSSSF.
9. "1999 CPSL League Schedule, Results, and Game Reports". Rocket Robin.
10. "2000 CPSL League Schedule, Results, and Game Reports". Rocket Robin.
11. "2001 CPSL League Schedule, Results, and Game Reports". Rocket Robin.
12. "2002 CPSL League Schedule, Results, and Game Reports". Rocket Robin.
13. Glover, Robin. "Voyageurs Soccer Talk".
14. "Canada - Canadian Premier Soccer League 2003 - rsssf.org". RSSSF.
15. "2003 CPSL League Schedule, Results, and Game Reports". Rocket Robin.
16. "2003 CPSL (Canadian Professional Soccer League) schedule - July to October 2003". Rocket Robin.
17. "CPSL - London wins Open Canada Cup wild card match". Rocket Robin.
18. "October 5, 2003 CPSL Awards Dinner from CPSL site".
19. "2004 CPSL - New soccer team hopes to take Durham by Storm.". Rocket Robin.
20. "Durham Flames 2003 - The Team". Web archive - durhamflames.com.
21. "Archive of Durham Flames 2003 - Administration". Web archive - durhamflames.com.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::