Old and new talent join GB Soccer

Shaun Mott

LOOK MA, BOTH HANDS Former Husky Alvaro Campos (left) will be joining the Bears this season.

As the Golden Bears soccer team prepares for a year of smallbut-significant turnover, ten new players have entered the fold to try to make it on to the final roster.

Among the possible new Bears so far are a Canada West veteran, five experienced Calgarians, and a number of local high-school products. The biggest names are Alvaro Campos, a transferring starter from the Saskatchewan Huskies, as well as former Mount Royal Cougar Milan Timotijevic.

But there’s no guarantee they’ll be wearing the Green and Gold when the season starts.

“There’s ten players committed to coming here in the fall, but there’s a big difference between ‘committed’ and being there at the start of training camp in August,” said Bears head coach Len Vickery. “Although, whether it’s eight, nine, or ten that show up on that particular date, it just serves notice to the entire squad—or those returning players—that competition for places this year is going to be extremely tough, and it’s great to have that situation. It tends to bring out the best in everyone.”

With the recent graduation of several key fifth-year players, the need for players who can step in immediately was foremost in the minds of the Bears soccer staff. Forwards Ammon Hoefs and John Konye and midfielders Alexander Campos and Danny Nielsen won’t be around next year, and at least one or two of the ten new footballers will be required to fill the vacant starting positions.

“We were in need of recruiting some key midfield players following the loss of our four fifth-year players, who played right across our midfield last year,” Vickery said.

One player that will be expected to step in and produce right away will be Campos. Having already spent four seasons with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, the former Guatemalan youth national will be looked upon for a stable defensive presence in the midfield.

“We were approached by Alvaro Campos, who indicated his wish to switch from the University of Saskatchewan to the U of A, and of course, that became intriguing because he’s already a seasoned veteran of the Canada West league, having played four years at the U of S,” Vickery explained.

Also expected to be on the field for the Bears’ opening kick is Timotijevic, who will be called upon to bring his firepower, in order to ignite the team’s offence. The Calgarian also has a connection to the Bears which should help his transition—for two years, Timotijevic played for the Calgary Callies senior men’s team alongside current second-year Golden Bear Brett Colvin.

“Milan, switching to us after two years at Mount Royal, has a lot more physical maturity to his play as opposed to some of the other [new] guys who have come here directly from high school,” Vickery said.

Also hailing from Calgary are four more players—midfielders Sean Colvin, Andrew Hood, and Dean Northover, as well as striker Glynndon Dobson. Victoria, BC’s Jonah Feil, who Vickery describes as a “goal scorer with good physical stature and plays with pace,” is also expected to join the team.

Meanwhile, midfielder Igi Broda and defenders Osmo Bimba and Scott Gilroy round out the local contingent.

“With the development and exposure that those younger players are going to get with the Canada Summer Games, they’re going to come in and be extremely competitive for a starting spot,” Vickery said.

One sign of hope for the new recruits this year is that Vickery and company are allowing for more flexibility on their opening day roster. Whether they manage to achieve a starting role, or end up developing in the team’s pipeline, the Bears are prepared to roll at least five or ten players deeper this year than they usually do.

“This will be a slightly different year for us—we haven’t typically gone with more than 20 players for a season. Most of our competitions—whether it be Victoria, UBC, Trinity Western—have rosters totalling 25 to 30 players. Given the quality of the recruits this time around, we might be looking at a slightly larger squad this time around.”