Dave Ainsworth and Dan Woodall went way back. They met while they were both working as police officers in Greater Manchester in the U.K.
“When I started in 2001 in Greater Manchester Police, I volunteered to be part of an area that didn’t have police patrol in it for a number of years just due to the animosity on the estate,” Ainsworth said.
“I put myself there and I was the only police officer doing it in that space for the longest time. The next person — as I heard what was being described as the beat that I was on by one of the sergeants, I heard: ‘Put me in, let’s go, coach.’ And it was Dan. He joined about a year after me. We were on the same shift. We were a couple blocks apart. I got to know Claire when they were dating. He was at my wedding. I was at his. It was all that stuff. He knew my kids. I knew his kids.”
They bonded on that beat, Ainsworth recalled.
“Being on the same shift, the fact that I was no longer alone on this beat. He was chasing them down. He was hardcore. He would chase them down just like I would and that cemented our relationship right there.
“Dan never approached anything without a laugh and a smile. No matter what the energy — whether it was the negative energy of the room or operation — Dan was always ready to go.”
Ainsworth moved to Canada in 2010, following the Woodall family’s move across the pond.
“It was on my mind. Myself and Dan were talking about it. There was an experience, a police offer program, running at the time. Dan took advantage of that. I went in a different direction. I went into the SWAT team type units over in the U.K. I was happy with what I was doing and didn’t take the opportunity at the time, but we stayed in touch. I picked his brain about how it was going over here… and kind of used him as my litmus paper.
“We had the opportunity to make the move and now my kids get to grow up in an environment that’s way better for them, in a country that’s embraced us as if we were here all along.”
Woodall Cup on Thursday, June 6, 2024.
Wes Rosa/Global News
Ainsworth, who now works as a security advisor for Strathcona County, was at St. Nicholas Catholic Junior High School on Thursday for the annual Woodall Cup, a soccer — or “football” — tournament held in the fallen Edmonton police officer’s honour.
Woodall was killed in the line of duty on June 8, 2015.
“Having a thing like the school named after him, the tournament named after him — it’s tragic circumstances that brought this together, but what is nice is we don’t remain in that tragedy,” Ainsworth said. “We actually take his name in a positive, create a tournament like this, and just seeing all the kids there, their smiles, feeling the electricity in the air, they’re ready to go.”
The Woodall Cup has six blended teams with nine players each from Edmonton Police Service and St. Nicholas Academy. They play a condensed soccer tournament with 20-minute matches. It wraps up with medal and trophy presentations. EPS players donate soccer equipment to St. Nicholas Soccer Academy.
Dan would have soaked up all the fun energy, Ainsworth said.
“Dan would definitely be providing constructive criticism towards some of the EPS members as they play… and when I say constructive criticism, he would be merciless in his assessment of their play, but he would be loving it.
“Dan could laugh in an empty room. He would find something to elevate the atmosphere.”
Official opening celebration held for Constable Daniel Woodall School
