Simon Fraser University’s men’s soccer team has signed Port Moody’s Andre Pietramala to its 2016 recruiting class.
The Port Moody secondary alum played the bulk of his youth soccer with Coquitlam Metro-Ford and is transferring to SFU from Capilano University, where he has played for three seasons.
In joining the Clan, the 5’11”, 160-lb. defender is following in the footsteps of his father, who also played with SFU.
“Andre brings all kinds of experience and he has the ability to start for us right away,” said head coach Clint Schneider. “He makes things more competitive defensively within the squad. Our goal was to ensure we had five or six players who could give us minutes defensively and adding Andre to the mix gives us that.”
Pietramala joins a list of this year’s signees that include several other Tri-City athletes.
Last spring, SFU announced it would enlist the services of centre back Lucas McIlveen and wingers Sam Lee and Erik Morden of Coquitlam along with goalkeeper Aidan Bain of Port Coquitlam.
They will join a handful of other new recruits from across the Lower Mainland and around the world, including defender Stefan Cuk and midfielder Rahid Rahim of Burnaby, Riley Pang of Richmond, Freddie Gard of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England.
“We went after quality people, identifying local talent first, who valued an SFU education and the degree they are going to get, and on the football side of things, knew what SFU was about,” Schneider said. “The guys we signed really want to be a part of our program.”
SFU finished with a 10-3-4 overall record in 2015 and was second in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference at 9-2-3. The 2016 season begins next month.
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