Leaving Prince George at age 15 to pursue his soccer career was a colossal decision for Austin Derksen.
Neither his friends nor his family went with him to Coquitlam and he admits he had a few soul-searching moments wondering if he'd made the right call.
Any doubts he might have had, however, were put to rest on Thanksgiving Day in Mount Pearl, Nfld., where Derksen and his Coquitlam Metro Ford Dynamo teammates beat Alberta 3-0 to win the Sony Under-18 Cup boys national championship.
"The feeling of winning a title like that, you can't explain it until you've done it yourself," said Derksen. "There was so much emotion involved. It was probably the best day in my life."
Dynamo scored its first goal four minutes into the second half of the final and sealed the win in the 78th minute. Kresimir Ukalovic, Domenic Delli Santi and Carlo Basso were the goalscorers.
"That's been our thing all year, we really weren't worried going into the second half because we had the game under control and we played the game we needed to play," Derksen said.
Dynamo took no chances in its preliminary round games, and with Derksen playing as a forward they hammered Nova Scotia 7-0 and the Yukon 6-0. After a narrow 2-1 defeat of Ontario, the B.C. boys shut out Prince Edward Island 7-0 in the semifinals.
From the age of 12, Derksen played mostly as a fullback on Prince George Youth Soccer Association select teams coached by Orlando Mauro. He was 14 when he joined the PGYSA Showcase Academy run by Sipho Sibiya.
"At a very young age I was one of the lucky people to get time with (former PGYSA technical director) Romeo Jozak and that really pushed me past a lot of people because it gave me that extra passion," Derksen said. "Having Sipho in town was a huge thing as well and I owe coaches like him and Orlando a lot. If Orlando hadn't started it all off, keeping the team together at U-12, I don't know if it would have been the same. Parent coaches don't get enough credit for all that they put in."
Mauro said Derksen showed signs early on he was going to excel in soccer and encouraged him to go to Coquitlam as a means to continue to develop his soccer skills.
"He's a very good athlete and we always knew he would pursue this and he's where he needs to be," said Mauro. "I'm really proud of him. It makes everybody who knows him proud, when you know somebody is doing so well."
After two years in the Academy, playing indoors at the Northern Sport Centre and traveling to tournaments in U.S., Derksen started thinking about a transfer to the Lower Mainland.
"It was a good move, but it wasn't easy," he said. "Anybody who makes that decision has to be very headstrong and I got lucky and found a great group of friends to help me make that transition.
"Prince George got me to where I was at but to be able to continue I needed the change. The amount of players at this level is much higher and it's that much more competitive. There are so many more teams, so many more players."
Some of the players on the Dynamo team have been together on the soccer field since they were eight. The Coquitlam striker is a freshman starter for Simon Fraser University and several team members are part of the Metro Soccer League, the top men's league in the Lower Mainland.
Having those kinds of players attracts attention from college scouts and Derksen has already visited the Northern California campus of Sonoma State. He's also had interest from Oregon State and will visit Sonoma again in November. He wants to eventually get into medical school and hopes to sign a letter of intent by February.
The son of Antony Derksen and Paul Van Horlick-Derksen (chair of the PGYSA) attends Dr. Charles Best secondary school in Coquitlam, where he lives in the home of his billets. The team has won the boys triple-A provincial title the past two seasons and was undefeated in two years until Tuesday, when they lost to Gleneagle.
The invitation to come to Coquitlam came after he was a late cut of the U-16 provincial team. He moved there in April 2009 to play that summer for the Coquitlam Super Y team coached by Alfredo Valente of the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Derksen, who turned 17 in September, first took up soccer when he was five. He came to a crossroads in his athletic career at age 10 when he gave up being an all-star centre fielder in baseball.
"The seasons conflicted and I had to make the choice, and I'm glad I made that choice," said Derksen. "Soccer is the greatest sport on earth and its not even a sport anymore, it's a lifestyle. I don't think I could ever separate myself from it, I'll always be doing something in soccer."
The
