Austin Derksen's soccer career took him from Prince George to Coquitlam. His next stop will be Durango, Colorado, where he'll play next school year for the Fort Lewis College Skyhawks.
The 17-year-old Derksen has signed a letter of intent with the Skyhawks, who compete in Division 2 of the NCAA. He has a combined athletic/academic scholarship that carries a value of about $10,000 for his first season and could climb higher after that.
"It's kind of cool," said Derksen, a former D.P. Todd student who moved to the Lower Mainland at the end of Grade 10 so he could push himself to higher levels in the game. "It didn't really sink in until I saw my name on the [Skyhawks] website. I was like, 'Wow, I'm actually doing this -- I'm going, and I'm doing this.' It is a little bit of closure in the sense that I've spent a lot of time in the past three years trying to do this. So now that it has happened and I know it has happened, it definitely is satisfying."
Derksen has played every position from fullback to forward. The Skyhawks will use him up front as an offensive weapon, not a bad idea considering his finishing ability around the net. At the triple-A high school provincial championship tournament earlier this month, Derksen scored six goals in five games and led the Dr. Charles Best Blue Devils to their second straight title.
The Devils weren't expected to be golden again. They secured the last Fraser Valley berth in provincials and entered the tournament as the No. 15 seed. But, after going unbeaten in their first three games, they defeated Richmond's Robert A. McMath 1-0 in penalty kicks in the semifinals and then downed North Delta 3-2 in extra time in the final.
"They were pretty intense games, but it was exciting," Derksen said.
Outside of the high school setting, Derksen has also met with great success. Last season, his Coquitlam Metro Ford Dynamo club won the Sony Under-18 Cup national championship.
The Skyhawks, Division 2 national champions in 2005 and 2009, are thrilled to have landed Derksen.
"We're very excited to bring Austin to the Fort," assistant coach David Oberholtzer said on the Skyhawks website. "He has a great resume and really impressed during his visit. He's a very smart player that has the ability to open up defenses with his clever runs and has a good eye for the goal. Austin really suits our style of play and will be a great addition to our squad."
Derksen had also drawn interest from Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia and Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Calif. He saw Fort Lewis as the best option.
"I went on visits to Sonoma State and to Fort Lewis in February and everything went well," he said. "When I was at Fort Lewis, they told me at the end of my stay that if I decided to come I'd have a spot on the team, which was nice. Then things went through where the money was at, and it ended up being that Fort Lewis was the most reasonable in that sense. They were able to do the most for me. Plus, they are very successful, so that was another pull, for sure."
Derksen, who spent his developmental years in the Prince George Youth Soccer Association, is looking forward to testing his skills in Division 2, which he said is underrated in terms of the quality of play.
"I feel like I'm at a peak, personally, so I feel like I'm going into it at a high," said the five-foot-11, 160-pounder. "I think the major thing for me is strength. Technically, I feel like I'm good enough to be there but it's just size -- they're pretty big down there."
