Mike Howlett – Athlete

Inducted 2022

Mike Howlett has been involved in the sport of Soccer since the young age of four, he played a total of 32 years of his life in which 22 of those years were played at the All Star or top provincial level in two different provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador and Alberta. At the age of 12, Mike was honoured to be selected to play for Team Newfoundland and Labrador at the Under 15 age level to help his team to win the Atlantics and compete at the 1987 All Star Nationals. Mike then played for team NL every year until 1991. In 1993, Mike represented the province as part of Team NL at the Canada Summer Games in Kamloops. He moved to Calgary in 1995 and lived in there for 12 years before returning home in 2007 to once again play Challenge Cup for St. Lawrence where he started his Challenge Cup career many years ago at 15 years of age. After the move back home Mike played for St Lawrence again from 2007-2010.

His 21 year Challenge Cup career was split between the St. Lawrence Laurentians and two teams in Calgary. At the national level, his Calgary teams represented Alberta six times while winning the National Challenge Cup gold medal twice. In 1999 he won with Calgary Celtics and repeated the success in 2003 with the Calgary Callies. He is the only Newfoundland born player to have won two National Challenge Cup gold medals. Here at home, his St. Lawrence team represented Newfoundland and Labrador 4 times at the Challenge Cup Nationals in 1993, 1998, 2007 and 2008, winning a Bronze Medal for the province in 2007. Playing at the Masters level, Mike helped St. Lawrence win a Silver medal at the 2012 Eastern Canadian Masters.

In Alberta, he is recognized as being one of the top strikers to have played in the Alberta Major Soccer League. Mike is also considered by many to be the best player Newfoundland and Labrador has ever produced. He continuously showed leadership on most every team he played on by being named captain, team and league MVP along with being scoring leader numerous times. Winning multiple titles earned him the honour to be named as the NLSA Senior Player of the Year in 2008 and be inducted into the St. Lawrence Soccer Hall of Fame in 2014, the Newfoundland and Labrador Soccer Hall of Fame in 2016, and the Burin Peninsula Hall of Fame in 2018.

Mike is described as a strong, determined competitor and his success on the field has been exceptional even when he played at the All Star level at 36 years of age, becoming the Challenge Cup top scorer.