The Wall of Thorpe

Kaiden Thorpe of the VIU Mariners has simply been a brick wall for her club in 2025.

In seven games this season, Thorpe hasn’t allowed a goal and takes her seven clean sheets into the Thanksgiving break with just two games remaining on the schedule.  She needs one more clean sheet to tie the Mariners team record of eight held by Shelby Walker who set the mark in 2014 with a 15-game schedule. This year Thorpe and the Mariners play a 12-game schedule.

Currently in her fourth season with the Mariners, Thorpe remembers that soccer may not have been her thing early on, “I first started playing when I was around three, in the little tykes just like everyone did when they were that age. However I was the kind of kid that was doing cartwheels and chasing butterflies on the field, so my parents were convinced it wasn’t really my thing, so I don’t think I went back for a while after. I must have been in first grade when in the hand-me-downs from my older cousin had her soccer gear in it, and that was it, I really wanted to play and be like her. I haven’t stopped since.”

Originally from Kimberley, Thorpe moved up to Sherwood Park, Alberta during her middle school years.  While there she played several sports, winning provincial gold in basketball, handball and volleyball.  Despite the team success in these other sports, she started to take soccer a bit more seriously in grades six and seven.  She was in keeper camp while in Sherwood Park and Joe Corrigan, who played for several Premier League teams and the England National team told her she had potential and that was it…soccer became her thing.

She continued to play and develop throughout high school with one of her most cherished moments coming in 2018, winning a provincial bronze medal. “I played as a fullback the entire game, then the coaches switched me to keeper when the game went into a shootout. I scored, and they missed a penalty kick, and our team won the game.” They are one of or are the first women’s team out of the Kimberley/Cranbrook area to place at provincials.

After high school Thorpe decided to enrol at VIU, “I wanted to stay in BC and be relatively close to home. I also have never really spent time out here on the Island before moving here, but who doesn’t want to say they can see the ocean from their campus? Meeting the team for the first time too really drew me in. Not to mention coming from a small mountain town, I can appreciate the lack of snow out here.”

Today she has been dominating as the Mariners keeper, but her first game wasn’t all smooth sailing, “I remember my first time playing in net, I went to drop kick the ball and it ended up going backwards and into my net.”

Don’t pigeonhole her into one position she says, she is talented enough to be a force offensively as well, “I played out when the other goalie on my team was in net, up until grade 12. During COVID my coach was training me to be recruited as a striker, and I still play out for NIFA at Futsal Nationals every year. It definitely would be fun to give it a go with VIU, but I always go back to goalkeeping.”  Certainly, the Mariners are completely fine with that.

Thorpe and the Mariners enjoy a bye this Thanksgiving weekend before the regular season finale the following week.  They have already clinched first place in the standings and an automatic berth into the PACWEST gold medal game set for Sunday October 26, 2025.