Having served his goalkeeping apprenticeship under starter Miguel Hof for the past two seasons, you’d think Port Coquitlam’s Aidan Bain would feel a bit entitled to take his spot in the box for the SFU Clan men’s soccer team now that Hof has graduated.
Instead, Bain has been spending every day of pre-season training battling for the position with three newcomers, two of them freshmen, and the third — Luciano Trasolini — a transfer from Barton Community College in Kansas with a Vancouver Whitecaps’ residency pedigree. And that suits him just fine.
Bain, a Terry Fox grad who played his club soccer with Surrey United and earned a trial with Aston Villa FC of the Premier League, said he thrives on the competitive atmosphere.
“You can’t really become too comfortable on this team,” Bain said. “There’s always someone coming that wants to get your spot.”
Bain said he spent his two seasons as backup to Hof learning how to be more professional about his position. That means paying strict attention to his diet, working on his strength and agility in the gym, and making sure he doesn’t succumb to some of the temptations of the student lifestyle.
“You just always have to be super strong on the field and off the field,” said Bain, who’s studying business. “You take your job pretty seriously.”
Bain said a preseason trip by the Clan to Norway where the team played some friendly matches against second division club teams was an important bonding experience for the team, including the competitors for the keeper’s job.
“We’ve definitely grown closer,” he said. “You can’t perform together on the pitch if you don’t have chemistry off the pitch.”
That bodes well for the Clan, who are favoured to defend their Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship as they head into the season 20th in the NCAA Division II rankings.
Bain said the European environment was also a chance for him to reconnect with some of the experiences he had four years ago when he spent a month with Aston Villa, which is based in Birmingham, England.
Bain said that tenure was pivotal in his development as a soccer player because he saw the level of dedication and commitment it takes to achieve success in the sport and the rewards that can come with that.
“They definitely take it as a full time job,” Bain said. “But they have nice facilities, they’re training on nice grass.”
With the Clan’s first six games of the season on the road, including a match Sept. 2 against their arch-rivals, Cal Poly Pomona — the team that’s punted them from the NCAA Div. II playoffs the past two seasons — Bain expects his professional approach will serve him well as it’s unlikely any of the four keepers will be anointed the starter’s job outright.
“It’s a challenge,” he said. “It makes you a better keeper in the end. If there’s no one to push you, you can become stagnant so the stress is actually good.”
• The SFU Clan’s first home match of the season at Terry Fox Field in Burnaby will be Sept. 20 against Montana State University Billings.
Robillard among freshman faces for women
Coquitlam’s Danae Robillard is among eight freshman recruits on the SFU Clan’s women’s team. The midfielder led her Centennial secondary girls team to a provincial AAA championship last spring.
The Clan, who finished fifth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference last season, are projected by the coaches’ preseason poll to move up a spot to fourth.
The team opens its schedule Thursday in Seattle with a match against Minnesota State University Moorhead. Their first home game will be Sept. 15, 3 p.m., at Terry Fox Field in Burnaby.
Football hope
The SFU Clan football team has a new coach. And new hope they can reverse a slide of 33 straight losses.
To ensure that sentiment doesn’t ring hollow, the team’s coach, Thomas Ford, is looking for big contributions on defence from a pair of linemen from the Tri-Cities.
Ford said Terry Fox secondary grads Brad Lyons and Isaac Evans will help comprise a formidable defensive wall that might be the strongest part of the Clan’s game.
“Defensively, I think we’re going to be a much improved football team,” Ford said, adding he was especially impressed by Evans’ progress in training camp.
“[He] can really do it all, on all downs,” Ford said of the 6’3”, 230 lb. sophomore who was red-shirted last season. “People are going to know about Isaac Evans after this year.”
The challenge for the Clan’s defence will be formidable, as the team allowed an average of more than 55 points per game last season.
Ford said he’s looking to seniors like Lyons to lead the team’s resurgence.
“Lyons is a guy that I think people definitely look to,” he said. “This year is really about bringing our guys up to the level of competition that it’s going to take to win.”
The first test of the substance behind those words is on Saturday, when the Clan host Willamette University at 3 p.m. at Terry Fox Field in Burnaby.
