Oudenburg might not sound familiar, but being in the shadow of Oostende it does have an old and consistent football team. "Waait Star" Oudenburg has been going strong since the end of the roaring 20s and it's definitely worth a visit when you're cruising down the Belgian coastline as a groundhopper.
Koninklijke White Star Oudenburg is the oldest and in the meantime also the only men's team active in this city in West Flanders. Ladies Oudenburg was created in 1990 and is still playing the game. But Eendracht UCB Oudenburg and Stormvogels Oudenburg both only existed for five years. That last one has an interesting story connected to White Star by the way.
But first "Waait Star". They themselves mention that they were founded in 1929. The Belgian FA however notes a foundation date in 1931. That same year, the Oudenburg club joined the Belgian FA as well, albeit under the name Athletische Vereeniging Oudenburg (aka AVO). In the heydays of WWII, that got changed into the current White Star Oudenburg.
And there's a simple reason for that name change. When the war broke out, AVO suspended its activities. A couple of youngsters still wanted to play football and they created Stormvogels Oudenburg as an emergency team. They even joined the Belgian FA. In 1945 however, both teams melted together and they continued as White Star. The matricule number of Stormvogels was only suspended in 1948 though.
"Waait Star" managed to reach the top regional league one year before that, but during the 50s they relegated all the way back to the lowest regional league. A decade later a new highlight happened. By 1965, White Star were back in the top regional league. Afterwards they went down again. The team wanted to go back as soon as possible and in 1978 they finally managed to get back to the second regional division. For almost 20 years straight, the club played in the that division.
The last 25 years, KWS Oudenburg has become an elevator team between second and third regional division. But they also got to enjoy the successes of one Christophe Lauwers. He started off with White Star as a youngster in 1980. After three years he moved to Cercle Bruges and via teams such as Eendracht Aalst, Toulouse FC and KV Oostende he returned to end his career in Oudenburg between 2008 and 2010.
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