The same playing card Joker tattoo that once covered the right calf of longtime goalkeeper and teammate Maxime Hunter, who lost his life in a car crash back in 2009, now rests on his own left calf.

For Simon Brabant, it’s an enduring memorial to both a best friend and his undying love for the game.

“We kinda created Hunters FC in his memory,” recounts the captain who founded the team’s current iteration alongside “bâtisseur” Marc Saint-Pierre. “And all our soccer friends came and basically played for us throughout the years. Players came and went but the main five guys stayed: Laurent and Vincent Parizeau, Olivier Meilleur-Tremblay, Vincent Cloutier and myself. Personally, this team means a lot to me.”

Hanging onto teammates you’ve been playing alongside since you were five-years-old is a strategy that seems to finally be paying off this summer. With three games left to play, the regular season championship is still very much in play for Hunters FC – a welcome change for a team that has struggled to put together a winning season since 2015.

The addition of midfielder Sebastien Bertrand and leading C5A Division sniper Farshad Zahedi definitely haven’t hurt the cause. “But we also added some core strength with our long time friends Olivier Varin, Fabien Ouellette, Maxime Dauphinais and Eric Major. Everybody plays their part, and even though the legs are not getting any younger, we still have great passion and great care for our team.”

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