They’re not trying to sell soccer – they’re trying to understand it.
That’s the mission behind a new feature-length documentary in the works at the University of Victoria, where filmmaker Raymond Dimmitt and a small creative team will spend two years embedded with the Vikes men’s soccer team.
Trusted by the program’s leadership, the filmmakers have been granted full behind-the-scenes access to document the team’s journey.
That access was solidified in early conversations with Dr. Nick Clarke, UVic’s director of varsity performance sport, and Larry Stefanek, head coach of the men’s soccer team.
But unlike a typical sports doc, this one trades highlight reels and triumphs for something far more personal: the psychological toll of athletic identity.
“What’s big for me is that this documentary is not just about soccer,” Dimmitt said. “It’s not a propaganda film about the institution. It’s more about the athlete.”
Set to begin filming in July, the project will chronicle the Vikes' 2025 and 2026 seasons – including a potential run to nationals, which UVic is set to host in the latter – through a lens of vulnerability, loss, and self-discovery.
“No athlete in academia has really talked about the existential nature of what it means to be an athlete,” Dimmitt said. “That label, that title – it’s hard to escape. And when that possible pro future doesn’t happen, that crisis is apparent, and it’s huge.”
That crisis – and the silence surrounding it – is the heart of the film.
It’s also deeply personal for Dimmitt, who arrived at UVic years ago with dreams of playing university basketball. Those hopes were quickly dashed, and the emotional fallout lingered.
“I wasn’t even offered a redshirt position,” he said. “That feeling bothered me a lot. And I thought with this project, it’s almost like my giveback to that feeling.”
That unresolved emotion simmered until a passing joke sparked the idea.
Dimmitt had been chatting casually with teammates on his recreational soccer team. They tossed around the idea of filming something, just for fun. At first, it was nothing serious – no cameras, no plan, just banter.
“It was kind of a running joke, like, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll make a documentary about you guys,’” he said. “But the more we talked, the more I realized there was something here. Something real.”
That casual idea evolved into deeper conversations, and eventually meetings with UVic players and staff, where themes of identity, pressure, and uncertainty rose to the surface.
“That’s when it stopped being funny,” Dimmitt said. “There was so much vulnerability under the surface. Guys asking themselves, ‘Who am I if this ends?’ That hit me. I’d lived that.”
Co-writer Emily Thomson, a fellow UVic graduate, shares that perspective.
“I think it’s applicable to so many people,” she said. “Whether it’s injury, age, disability – when an identity gets shut off, people resonate with that feeling. This documentary is about athletes, yes, but it’s really about anyone who’s had to redefine who they are.”
The team aims for an independent 2027 release, though raising $40,000 remains a key challenge.
One of the project’s biggest focuses is sound, not just the score, but the raw, unfiltered voices of players and coaches as they navigate the emotional rollercoaster of competitive sport.
And while there’s no script or tidy conclusion – the team could win, lose, or fall apart entirely – that uncertainty is part of what makes it compelling.
“In filmmaking, you don’t always know there’s a story until you go looking for it,” Thomson said. “But with this team, there’s something real happening. With this philosophical twist, this identity stuff – it opens up a whole new way to tell a story.”
And for Dimmitt, the goal is simple.
“If even one ex-athlete watches this and feels seen–like really understood–then that’s everything.”
A preview of the documentary can be seen below.
