Whitecaps FC Kootenay Academy sent 60 athletes from the Caps to College program to the 2019 SX College Showcase where they got to show off their skills.
From April 19-21 the athletes were in Burnaby/Surrey where top teams and college scouts from Canada and the United States came to watch players in action.
“It went very well,” said Sam Heap, head coach. “Overall the weekend was a big success for our little community.”
The academy took four different teams, including U16, U18 female teams, and U16, U18 male teams.
“I think all four teams set themselves up really well and did themselves no harm with scouts and university coaches looking at them,” said Heap.
Some of the female players even had a chance to watch players from the Canadian national team practice.
“That gave them a really good experience and got to see the professionals train and see what intensity they need to train and what things they do,” said Heap, noting they stayed to the end to get photos and autographs from the players and coach.
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These trips, while about soccer, are about so much more with the athletes. It was proven to be a bonding experience for the teams.
“Other than the games it’s a great bonding experience,” said Heap.
“Sometimes there is a split between the West and the East, but that seems to be eroding now. We have a good group and at the end of the weekend they are all a little tighter and memories are being created for sure.”
The bonding experience expanded throughout the weekend including on the pitch and trips to the mall.
The Kootenay Academy is comprised of players from the West and East Kootenay, including 23 from Cranbrook and seven from Kimberley.
Throughout the weekend, Heap notes there were many players who were approached by scouts and coaches.
“Even the juniors (Grades 9 and 10) were on their radar, which is fantastic,” he added.
“I think it opened up their eyes to the number of scouts and colleges that were looking for players, so there are opportunities moving forward.”
Player of the Season awards were also given out to a player on each respective team The U16 winners were Callum Cutler and Jessica Hanson, while the U18 winners were Noah Samsonoff and Teigan Barnhart.
“They were voted by the players,” said Heap. “We stayed out of it and thought it was best when it comes from your peers.”
The players put in a lot of hard work at the showcase and leading up to it. But, Heap says he hopes while being there it helped to encourage their love of the game.
“They all have passion, and we just try to keep feeding that,” he said.
The SX Showcase was the last tournament of the season for the athletes in the Caps to College program in the Kootenays and Heap says it was a very successful year.
“It has been extremely successful. The level of play we have already seen coming out of the technical side has taken a huge jump because I think we have a lot more focused athletes, a lot more focused soccer players that rather than train once a week, they are training multiple times a week. They are also taking fitness really seriously now … I’m really happy to say it has kind of breached the gap of where it was to where it needed to be,” said Heap,
He notes the Caps to College program has been able to better prepare the student-athletes who want to play in post-secondary.
“It’s what they have been aiming towards and now they are ticking off the boxes. There’s going to be so many more success stories from this crop. It’s incredible the amount of talent we have in this small area that we are able to produce and send to places. There are going to be more and more success stories.”
There are also seven athletes who will be aging out of the program this year, but Heap adds there will be many players moving up in their age category.
In the U16 teams, there are a majority U15 athletes that are playing up and against the older teams, and the same for the U18 teams where many of the athletes are younger.
“It worked against us for the results, but not the experience for them, when they go into their age group next year will be incredible,” said Heap.
For the next six weeks, the Kootenay Academy will do a session a week until July to finish off their season.
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