calgary wild fc founder taking haitian-born daughter to see her country play at world cup
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deanna zumwalt, founder and board chair of calgary wild fc, with her adopted daughter fabie, were photographed in calgary on thursday, may 28, 2026. both rooted in the soccer community - deanna as a leader and fabie a player - the two will be heading to watch the fifa world cup to watch haiti play.
brent calver/postmedia
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brent calver/postmedia
with the beginning of the world cup just days away, millions of canadians are readying their bags, flight tickets, flags and soccer balls.
calgary wild fc founder deanna zumwalt and her daughter, fabie, are no exception.
on june 12, the two will fly to the u.s. to witness two historic haitian matches in the tournament — against scotland in boston on june 13, followed by a showdown with brazil in philadelphia on june 19.
it is the first time haiti has qualified for the world cup in 50 years, but for zumwalt and fabie, the matches carry an even deeper personal significance.
zumwalt and her partner adopted fabie from haiti around the time of the 2010 earthquake, when she was only two years old.
now 18, fabie said she doesn’t remember being airlifted out of the country and meeting her adoptive parents in ottawa.
but zumwalt remembers holding her in her arms for the first time.
“you see pictures of them growing up and then it’s surreal when you see them in person, because they’ve always been a picture,” zumwalt said.
six years before, she and her partner had adopted fabie’s elder twin siblings, monique and joe.
“i vividly remember pulling into a gas station in haiti and seeing a younger man and saying to my husband, he’s got my babies,” she said. “it was the same young man who brought fabie to us.”
by the age of four, fabie decided she liked playing soccer, and has since competed in multiple tournaments across the province. she will head to trinity western university in the fall, where she will play soccer.
“it’s been the one sport i’ve loved playing my whole life,” fabie said.
football is the national sport in haiti, although zumwalt called it “the world’s game.”
“they live and die by it,” zumwalt said of the haitian football culture. “it’s a country (where) there’s not a lot of happy things all the time, so to have something like that to unite them — pretty incredible.”
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neither of them has been back to haiti since the adoption.
“it’ll be overwhelming,” zumwalt said of watching the country play.
professional women’s soccer team idea came from daughter’s club
deanna zumwalwith her adopted daughter fabie on a soccer field in calgary. the pair will travel to the u.s. to watch haiti play in the world cup.
brent calver/postmedia
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brent calver/postmedia
it was fabie’s soccer club, the calgary foothills wild fc, that asked her mother to help set up the first professional woman’s soccer league in calgary.
“they had helped do that for young men in the city by helping to bring the cavalry, and so when they approached me and said, ‘hey, would you help with this,’ i said yeah,” zumwalt said.
it was a coming together of her three worlds — her career, her athletic passions and her family.
“being a mom, a ceo and a former athlete myself, i knew the impact it had on young girls,” she said. “this means more to girls than it does to boys.”
the idea sparked in december 2022, and by 2024 the wild fc team was born.
in 2026, the wild fc academy was founded as a club pipeline streamlining young talent to the elite stage. fabie trains at the academy.
“it’s awesome to have another pathway for when you get older, not having to always go abroad,” she said.
four years since the concept was sparked, zumwalt is still no stranger to the occasional remark describing the club as a “recreational league.”
“often, when people come up to the game at mcmahon stadium and they watch us play, they go, ‘wow, this is for real pro sport,’ ” she said. “there’s just this attitude that women’s sport isn’t real professional sport.”
the haitian women’s soccer team made its world cup breakthrough in 2023, debuting in the tournament at australia and new zealand, and winning its first world cup match against china in the group stage.
“you’ve got all this stuff going on with the wnba taking off and (women’s professional soccer leagues) in the u.s. and u.k., and you’ve got women’s professional cricket,” she said.” it’s become a little more mainstream.”
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the growth of women’s sport is also playing a pivotal role in their lives off the field. an ernst and young survey found that 94 per cent of surveyed women in the c-suite played sports.
“wild has always been more than about a sport, it’s about elevating a generation of female leaders,” zumwalt said.
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